Junior English

Day One

SYA classes started yesterday.  After reading students' intro letters to me three weeks ago, in which many expressed enthusiasm for the Harkness approach, I decided I had to do it.  Not entirely, but twice a week.  Some years ago our TA English department had a Saturday workshop on Harkness.  I loved it, embraced it, and then tried in with my ninth grade English class about three times per year.  I've been a little scared of it: what if the discussion falls flat?  what if the kids don't get anything out of it?  is it lazy teaching on my part?  what if we don't get do all the themes that we should during these discussions?  In truth, I worry about this final question whether we are doing Harkness, or I am leading the class myself.  I'm not sure whether this is my insecurity in my teaching or in my knowledge, or whether it is a product of my going to Catholic school for thirteen years -- being told and believing that the best answer is always the right answer, that there is, in fact, a right answer.  I find myself even now thinking that there is a best answer to questions or a best way to teach a book.  I know there's not because I've seen colleagues approach and teach the same texts myriad ways, and I admire more than one approach (I often sneak an extra copy of a nifty handout on things I'm teaching and things I'm not from the copy machine in the foreign language office at TA...it could be assignments on the same book from two different teachers.  I don't judge whether one is better than the other.  I get greedy for the ideas of both...and how I can use my ideas plus theirs in my class).  But still, sometimes this thought creeps up on me...what if I'm not doing it right.

When I was working out essay questions on Flight, I emailed a friend who had taught it before.  She answered my email request a few hours after I posted my questions -- which, actually, were based on the discussion questions and exit tickets of the students that day.  I was pretty excited about my posted questions, about the kids' questions really.  But when my friend's email arrived, I couldn't help myself: I read her questions with a critical eye, not towards her but towards myself: had I covered the topics she had found most important?

This second-guessing myself is not new.  I always want to be the better teacher, the best teacher, as I say, to make sure I'm getting it as right as I can.  And I know in my heart and in my head I that the most important thing is to prep well, be totally present in class, and to listen.  Above all, to listen.

Day Two

Three minutes into first period the students let me know that, while I did post the homework last night online, I did not publish the date so it did not show up on their online calendar, so the majority of students haven't done it.  I have no back-up: my lesson was based on that homework assignment.  The only thing that comes to mind is to swap plans for day 2 and day 3.  We're doing Harkness with no more debating or self-doubt or analyzing or researching (will I be put one day into this position when I have to drive the standard Fiat?).

It's good I had no more time to plan and read about Harkness discussions, to search again my google drive for my Harkness workshop notes.  We spent ten minutes talking about what makes a good Harkness discussion with kids who hadn't done Harkness asking questions (e. g. what is it? what's the purpose? how's it different from a discussion?)  and kids who have done Harkness contributing most important aspects (don't interrupt; listen; use the text; include everyone; three before me; be concise; be patient with the pace; let silence be okay; disagree respectfully).  I made a student map while the kids took a moment to think of questions and topics on Sherman Alexie's Flight, and then we -- or rather, they, jumped in.

They amazed me: they covered more ideas and quotes and themes than I possibly could have navigating the discussion from one idea to the next.  We have work to do -- we need every single student to speak during discussion, but we got a super start.  I read in one spot, Don't do Harkness unless you can do it regularly and often.  New plan: twice a week, no exception.

Reverse Teaching/Coaching/Club Leading Paradigm

In independent schools, many teachers coach sports and/or lead clubs.  The reasoning: it's good to get to know kids outside the classroom, to see them in another way, to learn about them, to work with them as they shine or struggle, to develop another relationship with them.  I coached for seven (I think) of my twenty teaching years.  During and after that, I advised clubs.  The reasoning works in reality: I have developed relationships with students outside class; I've gotten a new appreciation for certain kids; I'm a better teacher because of these outside interactions.

This year, the order of knowing was flipped: I worked with the SYA students for three weeks outside the classroom before we ever had a real class together.  I talked with them as they worked through orientation activities, adjusted to host families, retreated in Terracina for three days.  One student approached me about starting an SYA literary magazine; three others came to see me about moderating the academic work that accompanies the orientation activities; an advisee set up a meeting about food issues with her host family.  I read the students' homework and essays, so I knew some about them as students, but I didn't know their classroom personae at all.  I knew some reading and writing skills, some homework routines and standards, some issues or interests outside the classroom.

In this first full week of classes, I had some of my observations and assumptions about students challenged.  I learned that one girl was a lot brighter and more engaged with the literature than I had imagined; that one boy was less cocky than he seemed and a better listener than I had seen outside class.  Some kids, whose writing was mediocre, gave brilliant comments in class.  A girl who seemed to have it completely together was paralyzed by a writing assignment since her home school does different types of essays (and her teacher grades different from how I do...do all teachers hear this accusation yearly?).  After class this week one kid recommended I read Siddhartha; another recommended the short story "The Lie" by Kurt Vonnegut ; another the website mcsweeneys.net.  They told me about the difference between Ted talks and Ted X talks.  The morning after I assigned Brene Brown's Ted talk on vulnerability, one boy started the conversation with the comment, "I'm so glad that you assigned that Ted talk.  It's really relevant to our experience this year in SYA, and it gave me a lot to think about in terms of putting myself out there."  Another girl soon followed up with, "I related Brene Brown's points to Flight and to Zits and to his journey in becoming more vulnerable and letting people in."

Teenagers have so much to say.

So much to teach.

Just listen.

(Well, prep and grade and listen.)