Journal 3-4

English12
I haven't written about English 12 in a while... We started the short story unit on Tuesday, and for homework that night I assigned a short story ("The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry) and a reflective reading log. I asked students to rate how they read and then complete 6 sentence stems that asked questions about what they were thinking/doing as they read. The following day, reading logs were due and we discussed what they discovered (more on that later). The rest of this week, we've been working with the story. We've completed some discussion, worked on analyzing the most important parts of the story, and completed a character analysis.

Observations
Initially, students were hesitant. They do not like to read and have not been successful students in the past. What I attempted to do was model appropriate reading strategies. We discussed ways to stay on track while reading, or what happened in our heads as we read. Students shared things like, "I have a movie in my head as I read," or "I have a hard time concentrating, so I don't read very long," or "I re-read when I get stuck." I questioned the students a little more deeply - I was pushing them to see if they were telling the truth, or if they were just saying what they thought I wanted to hear. Other students did confess to not reading, or to the text being meaningless, but mostly they stuck to what they said. After our short discussion, I began reading the story, but I stopped to comment or ask questions as I read. I also repeated parts when I restarted. Finally, I asked students to sum up parts of what we had read. We got through about half the story when the bell rang. Homework was to finish reading and complete a reading log as homework. The next day, I asked about the reading logs right away. Students discussed where and when they read. Students who rated themselves as poor readers confessed to reading in front of the T.V. or reading on the school bus. Students also said that because of the questions I had asked in the reading log, they had to go back and re-read with those questions in mind. (Bonus!) They reported that because of the re-reading and questions, they understood the story.

I also observed students during their time completing a character analysis sheet. I had hoped that it would spark interesting conversations about character motivation and how different perspectives can alter a character's understanding of an incident, but students weren't interested. They got through the sheet as quickly as possible.

reflection
First, I'm happy to see the reading log have its desired intent. The students themselves decided to go back and re-read instead of just writing down any old answer and moving on. There was a lot of discussion about the story - the kids loved it. Most of them identified with Red Chief (Johnny) and because of that were a lot more forgiving. One student declared that she wanted to be kidnapped so that she could give her kidnappers a hard time. This prompted a discussion about the nature of stories and how they present reality - did she really think that as a 17-year-old girl that her kidnapping would be carried out by people as stupid and naive as Bill and Sam? I've noticed one disturbing trend in the class that began today - students are beginning to lower their standards. They are beginning to turn in work that is shoddy and incomplete, and they are invoking their status as 12B students as an excuse. There were three boys who insisted that I shouldn't expect them to understand or do the work because "This is 12B and we're not that smart." Very frustrating.

This attitude translated to the character analysis sheet we completed today. Many students complained first that it was too hard, then that it was a waste of time, and finally, it was too easy (go figure...). I'm curious about the attitude change - why now? I'm still requiring the same amount of work, and to the same standards as when they were in my class last year. Why do they think I'll take poor work now when I wouldn't take it last year? I also noticed students shifting in to cliques - the normal intelligence/learning disabled students did not want to associate with the not-so-smart kids. Why? They were all friends two weeks ago...what changed? It's as if they've hit a wall - but is it senior-itis, or is it because of the class they're in? I've reminded students repeatedly that my standards have not changed, and that the only difference between my class and the other English 12 classes are the text selections. We do a lot of the same things, otherwise. I'm also curious about my girls - there are only three now (one dropped out...), and they seem to be quieting down and banding together. I know for a fact that two of them HATE each other outside of class, but in class they're buddies. What issues are making them close off and will it ultimately affect their performance in this class?