Adolescent Lit

I agree that finding quality lit for our young readers is important, but the problem that I have is that great literature is not always so exciting for the first few chapters as the authors sets the tone, etc for the piece.  The issue is that so many students are used to being hooked on a story line by the first commercial break rather than working though the opening pages of a book. 

I have had students tell me that the book is 'boring' after only reading the first paragraph (sometimes that is at most).  So--- I read to them....And they need that so they learn to interpret and determine meaning from the phrases and sentences which are streaming past their eyes.... 



I just don't know sometimes.... and in the reading of this piece, I wondered if we are allowing time for them to read -- after all, my own children are often so busy that they cannot stay awake when they finally get to sit down at home. 

Aargh...interrupted again, sorry.

CCS-

So I wanted to write CCC beacuase I love acronyms and the Civilian Conservation Core....but I can't help but wonder and think about discovery.  I don't really feel any discover in these standards -- even though they seem to be pretty broad and I have a little chart which puts them side by side with the MI HS content expectations -- "The Huskies....as my colleagues like to say...."


Anyway, back to discovery -- I think that we may be treating English Language Arts too much as a catch-all (speaking, multi-media, etc.... ) as well as too seriously. I can't really say what I fully mean by the idea of taking it too seriously, but I think that we need to begin to learn to learn again.  Less focus on subject area and more on learning -- I want to open a Socratic institute....   Hmm....  But can it work for the jaded kid who has already been taught to hate school? 

Assessing --

Wow...this is old already, but I really appreciate that Hillocks  addresses that we do so much whining,yet we capitulate to the stance that we all 'teach to the test' -- at least in one way or another.  I think that what I am most bothered by -- and I see in my own school -- is that "writing assessment drives instruction" (64).  That is clear and needs to be so as we are evaluated by those scores, but I worry that it will take voice and tone out of writing.  All writing needs then to be 'The Same' in some fashion.  No longer will individualism in style, content, voice and even rhetorical grammar be allowed and we are condoning it.  Hillocks goes through a number of very significant and important questions to consider, but his audience is already sold on the matter -- instead, we need the legislators (who may not be savvy regarding all that education entails even though they set policy and funding) to listen to more than just the test writing companies.  So how do we get communities to take back control of their schools and dictate more. 

The standardization of the GLOBE is bothering me, but we seem to be losing any sense of regionalism and culturalism -- to me it feels a little like the 1984 situation  -- certainly not to that extreme yet -- maybe? 

So, I guess what I want to see is the resurgence of the local school that is founded on the children and adults of that community.  This school could focus on the needs of its own community members and therefore may direct its curriculum toward whatever its members may need.  I don't know that any "national" standards are truly necessary.  Instead, I wonder if this might give more rise to local concern, pride, initiative and less emphasis on the answers all coming from the top down.  Of course, this would require a change in National Education law and funding changes --

9 November - Tuesday

I. Journal: (10 minutes and turn in after done today) Topic: Today I feel....
II. Begin group-led discussions on The Crucible  Act I -->  Act IV (Unit Test is on Monday, 15 November)
III.  Sub for 1/2 of the hour tomorrow....
IV. Remember -- Roots?Base quiz over list 7 on Thursday