Thursday, October 11, 2018

Using Cowoy Ethics to Teach Theme



I don’t know about you, but my 7th and 8th graders REALLY struggle with finding theme. They think theme is something that an author will state right out, not something that they have to infer from character traits. This year I took a different approach to teaching theme.

Some back story! Our music teacher, Jennifer Schultze, is THE LADY that hosts our weekly middle school assemblies. She sets the foundation for our middle school culture. Last year, Mrs. Schultze introduced us to Cowboy Ethics. That got me thinking. Instead of having the students guess how they are living the Cowboy Ethics, why not have real life experience with them? That got me thinking even more: Why not use the Cowboy Ethics to teach theme? Which got me thinking even more: How am I going to do this? I contacted Mrs. Schultze about this since Cowboy Ethics is her thing. She was totally onboard and supportive. We brainstormed and bounced a few ideas around, and then off I went to teach how character traits develop theme in literature by using Cowboy Ethics.

8th Grade

My 8th graders were starting a unit called Voices and Viewpoints. This unit is part poetry and part speeches. I introduced the Cowboy Ethics with the first lesson. We read “The Rainy Day” and “Invictus.” I gave the students the theme “Live Each Day with Courage” and asked them how they saw theme in the two poems. They picked up on that one pretty easily because both poems are straightforward with this concept. Next set of poems were “We Real Cool” and “The Negro Speaks of River.” I again gave them the theme “Some Things Are Not for Sale.” This one they struggled with a little more, but they still seem to understand how Brooks and Hughes were talking about culture. I started second guessing whether this was a good idea. Then we did “Mending Wall,” which was the AHHH – THIS IS WORKING moment. I again gave them the theme “Talk Less, Say More.” The students jumped on that one and had lots of examples of how Frost illustrates barriers in communication.

The second part of Voices and Viewpoints is speeches: “The Gettysburg Address,” “Vice-President Johnson’ Memorial Day Address,” and “I Have a Dream.” For the first two speeches, I again gave the students the Cowboy Ethic that is illustrated and had the students tell me where they saw it. But, when I got to “I Have A Dream,” I changed up things. On the exit ticket, I listed all of the Cowboy Ethics and asked the students “Which one of the Cowboy Ethics do you think Dr. King Illustrates? Why?” Here is a cross section of my students of the answers I was given.

I think that Dr. King uses all of the cowboy ethics well. but the one that standout to me the most is to live each day with courage. because he never stopped trying each day and he had the courage to make the change that he did in the world.
A little bit of Remember some things are not for sale, some Know where to draw the line. The things that are not for sale are the ideals of freedom that our forefathers put in place, knowing where to draw the line is remaining civil.

Do what has to be done, because Martin Luther King JR. is saying that the Negros need to have equal rights.

I think he uses "Live each day with courage" and "when you make a promise keep it." Blacks need to be courageous to get the rights that they were promised by the Constitution and the Emancipation Proclamation.

I was thrilled to see how the students were able to apply the Cowboy Ethics to infer Dr. King’s message of hope for the future.


7th grade

My 7th graders were starting a unit called Irony. This unit has 3 short stories that illustrate irony, and the writing assignment is for the students to write a fictional narrative. Part of this unit is to understand the elements of a short story and how characters develop theme. I have found that 7th graders are pretty lost when trying to infer theme. This year, we used the Cowboy Ethics to describe the characters. When we read our first story of the unit “Charles,” I asked the students how the main character takes pride in his work. This helped the students to focus on what the character was doing. I did the same thing with “The Gift of the Magi,” the second short story, but this time I asked how Della illustrated “Do What Has to be Done.” Again, it helped the students to focus on what the character was doing. Then we did “The Necklace, the third short story. On the exit ticket, I listed all of the Cowboy Ethics and asked the students “to tell me which of the Cowboy Ethics Mathilde illustrated and why. Here is a cross section of my students of the answers I was given.

Mathilde illustrates "do what has to be done" because when she loses the necklace she does her own housework and does the things her maid would usually do for her.

Finish what you start. She bought a necklace at her cost but she still paid of the debt. It took her ten years but she finished.

the cowboy ethic of When you make a promise,keep it because she made a promise to her freind that she would return the neckles and even though she had to be in poverty for 10 years she kept the promise still


I was thrilled to see how the students were able to apply the Cowboy Ethics to infer the irony of the situation.
After we finished reading the stories, the students had to write their own fictional narratives. Developing theme is one of the objectives. This year, I gave them the Cowboy Ethics and said that they needed to pick one of the Cowboy Ethics as their theme. There seemed like there was a collective sigh of relief from the students because they were not left to their own devices to figure out a theme.

In conclusion

All in all, I feel that Cowboy Ethics is a concrete way to help the students see how characters develop theme. The Cowboy Ethics were the questions that the students needed to know to find character traits. It helps them to see past the physical part of the characters to the motivations of the character. Because the students could see the motivations of the characters more clearly, they were able to start to understand how the characters develop theme.


Owens, James P, and Brigtte Leblanc. Cowboy Ethics: What Business Leaders Can


Learn from the Code of the West. Skyhorse Publishing Company, Incorporated,
2015.

Sunday, February 4, 2018

So what is it like to be . . . a good teacher

So what is it like to be . . . a good teacher I have taught in all sorts of educational programs. I have done public rural high school, public urban elementary school, charter school, elite private school, and virtual public education. I have taught kindergarten - college age students.I have taught in three states and a US territory. Regardless of when or where I was teaching, I would get the same question “So what is it like to be . . .” fill in the blank. The answer is - it is the same as teaching anywhere else.

My favorite time to answer this question was when I was teaching kindergarten-3rd grade at-risk reading in the mornings and college freshman English in the afternoon. When I was asked what is like to switch from little kids to adults, I answered nothing - college freshmen and kindergartens are about the same: both are really excited to be at school, both think they know everything, and both are a little afraid to leave mom. The only difference was size - kindergartners are a bit shorter. My second favorite time to answer this question was when I was teaching middle school English online. I started in virtual education in 2009, which most people could not even imagine how to do online education with kids. My answer that question was not much - I put in just as many hours for virtual education as I did for brick and mortar. I still had the same issues of motivation, attitude, SPED, helicopter parents, late work, etc. I still had to have lesson plans aligned to standards, sit through staff meeting, deal with interesting policy and procedures, and administer standardized testing. The only difference was communication with families and I could wear jeans everyday since students didn’t see me below my neck I communicated a lot more with parents and students in virtual education - more calls, more email, more lessons - than I ever did with brick and mortar students.

One thing that I have learned from all of the different places I have taught is that a good teacher is good regardless of the environment. According to Rob Jenkins, there are eight traits that make a good teacher good. Good teachers are good nature, are professional without being aloof, seem to enjoy what they are doing, are demanding without being unkind, are comfortable in their own skin, are tremendously creative, and make teaching look easy (2016). According to Marie Orlando, a great teacher respects students, creates a sense of community and belonging in the classroom, is warm and accessible, sets high expectations for all students, has his/her own love of learning, is a skilled leader, can “shift gears,” collaborates with colleagues on an ongoing basis, and maintains professionalism in all areas (2013). Although, I do agree with these lists, I think that it takes something more. It take blood, sweat, tears, time, patience, thick skin, strong stomach, and forgiveness to be a good teacher. Forgiveness being one of the most important attribute(https://tinyurl.com/forgivenessinteaching ). A good teacher knows his/her students to be more than a butt in a chair and name in the gradebook. A good teacher knows how to balance and use breaks for recharging. A good teacher smiles even when there is nothing to smile about. A place does not make good teacher. People make a good teacher.

So what is it like to be a teacher in . . . like a teacher anywhere else - rewarding!


Jenkins, Rob. “What Makes a Good Teacher?” What Makes a Good Teacher?, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 31 May 2016, www.chronicle.com/article/What-Makes-a-Good-Teacher-/236657. https://www.chronicle.com/article/What-Makes-a-Good-Teacher-/236657 

Kerr, Rachel. "Teaching - ULTIMATE Practice of Forgiveness." Dr. Rachel Kerr's Classroom, 28 Apr. 2017, tinyurl.com/forgivenessinteaching.

 Orlando, Marie. “Nine Characteristics of a Great Teacher.” Nine Characteristics of a Great Teacher, Faculty Focus: Higher Education Teaching Strategies from Magna Publication, 14 Jan. 2013, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/philosophy-of-teaching/nine-characteristics-of-a-great-teacher/

Saturday, January 6, 2018

The More Things Change . . .


I am third generation teacher.   My grandmother was a teacher in a rural one-room school-house in Illinois. My grandmother had a 30 year teaching career, which was unusual for a woman of her generation.  My mother was a home economics teacher in a huge city public high school until she had children; her teaching career was a few years, which was more typical of a woman from her generation.   I am a virtual teacher; I teach middle school Language Arts online, which seems unusual to many teachers in this day and age.  I started teaching in 1995 and still going strong. During my career, I have come to learn about that old adage - the more things change, the more they remain the same.
We have a lot of “new” terms in education - differentiated instruction, full inclusion, collaborative learning, etc.  that my grandmother would never have even heard. Even if she had heard of them, she would probably have given me THAT LOOK that told me that all of this was crazy and just let her teach.  However, Grandma really did have to incorporate all of these “new-fangled" methods of teaching in her everyday classroom in her one-room school house..  

Differentiated Instruction

Screen Shot 2017-11-03 at 8.34.36 AM.pngAccording to Carol Tomlinson, “Differentiated instruction and assessment (also known as differentiated learning or, in education, simply, differentiation) is a framework or philosophy for effective teaching that involves providing different students with different avenues to learning (often in the same classroom) in terms of: acquiring content; processing, constructing, or making sense of ideas; and developing teaching materials and assessment measures so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences in ability” (2001).  This is considered standard best practice in today’s classroom. Every child should have access effective instruction that will help him/her learn best.  

Grandma had to do this every day.  Every child in her classroom would have been at a different reading level and a different math level. There would be no possible way that her first graders would be doing the same work as her fifth graders.  Her expectations and lesson plans would be different for most every child in her classroom.  

I have to do this as well.  The reading level in my typical classroom can range from 3rd grade level to upper high school level.  There is no way that I can have all students doing the same work at the same level.  It is not only impossible, it is also inappropriate.  

Full Inclusion and/or Mainstream

“Under the inclusion model, students with special needs spend most or all of their time with non-special needs students. Inclusion rejects the use of special schools or classrooms to separate students with disabilities from students without disabilities. Schools with inclusive classrooms do not believe in separate classrooms. They do not have their own separate world so they have to learn how to operate with students without special help.” (wikipedia).

Grandma taught prior to the enactment of PL-94-142 The Education for All Handicapped Children Act. And back then, the most severely handicapped children did not go to school.  However, she would have had students with learning disabilities in her classroom.  She used to talk of students who were “slow learners but hard workers that school just was not their strong point” and students who “just could not sit still no matter what.” Although she may have never had to attend an IEP meeting, she would have had to include those students in the everyday classroom making accommodations for their learning.  

I have never taught without full inclusion or mainstreaming.  When I started teaching in 1995 in my first school district, my district went to full inclusion in the classroom.  I have always had multi-leveled classrooms with students with IEPs.  In my virtual classroom, I have a higher percentage of SPED students than ever had in my brick and mortar classrooms.  I participate in IEP meetings several times a month and have daily contact with the SPED teacher.  Grandma would not have had that support; however, she would have been the one responsible for making sure that her students would have the skills they needed to be successful when they left school.


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Collaborative Learning

According to Cornell University, “Collaborative learning is based on the view that knowledge is a social construct. . . Collaborative learning can occur peer-to-peer or in larger groups. Peer learning, or peer instruction, is a type of collaborative learning that involves students working in pairs or small groups to discuss concepts, or find solutions to problems. This often occurs in a class session after students are introduced to course material through readings or videos before class, and/or through instructor lectures” (2017)

In a one-room schoolhouse, Grandma would have had to use collaborative learning.  She would talk on how she would get several students started on a lesson, then they would work together quietly while she got the next group started.  She would also talk about how she paired older students with younger students, especially if both students needed to work on similar skills.  It seems to me that one room schoolhouses were the original collaborative learning classrooms.  

In the virtual platform, collaborative learning is organized a bit differently. We group students together and put them together in their own “rooms.”  The students still have to work together, discuss the project or problem, and develop a project together.  


The big difference between Grandma’s One Room School House and Virtual Education?

Tools and support -  tools are the big difference between what Grandma did and what I do.  I have a computer, internet, Excel to track data,, Google, more tools than what I know what to do with. Grandma didn’t have Google to rely on. She had textbooks and her own knowledge and wits. I have more specialists - the SPED teacher, the tech teacher, the data analysis lady.  Grandma had herself, her institution, her grade book and her students' parental support.  

So really - not much has changed in the way of education.  We have different terms, but good teaching is just that - good teaching doing what is best for students so that they are ready for their real world when they graduate.


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My classroom



Special Thanks to the Prophetown, IL Historical Society for the pictures of my grandmother.  


“Collaborative Learning: Group Work.” CTI - Collaborative Learning,
www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/engaging-students/collaborative-learning.html.



“Inclusion (Education).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Oct. 2017,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusion_(education).


Tomlinson, Carol (2001). How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Differentiated
Instructions provides access for all students to the general education curriculum. The
method of assessment may look different for each child, however the skill or concepts
taught is the same. Classrooms (2 ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development. ISBN 0871205122.