Alex


 * Situation**

Jake Heuker failed 9A last year. He is the on ly Sophomore in our Freshmen English course. The first day of school my CT was quite vocal about the fact that Heuker, someone she was quite familiar with having had him last year, had to retake her class. She did this playfully and, from what I gathered, with an intentional innocence. However, Heuker, based on my observation, seemed bothered by this public declaration. He continued, however, to bring it up again and again, "I already did this last year. Do I have to do it again?" to which my CT would respond, "Yes, Heuker, you do. It should be esy for you." etc. It was as if he was the poster child for why you should really try to pass 9A. I was quite sure how to interpret this interaction, the relationship between Heuker and my CT, or how the class viewed this event. It made me feel uncomfortable.


 * Why did it happen? What did it mean?**

I think this happened for a number of reasons. First, because my CT saw that she knew someone in a room full of students she didn't know. She played the personal relationship card, know that it is important to develop and maintain a friendly/personal rapport with students. I think she was trying to show Heuker that she remembered him and was familiar with his habits. It seemed like she was saying two things at once, "I know about you and have your figured out" and "I will be pushing you harder this year so that you pass this time. You will be getting my attention." This was a mix of affection and discipline. I also think my CT was trying to encourage not only Heuker, but the rest of the class as well, to work hard and not fail. She was using humor to accomplish these things (however inappropriate that humor was). She may have also just been stating and moving past what everyone already knew--Heuker failed.

Heuker reacted as he did, perhaps, to connect with my CT, to feel like he belonged, or perhaps because he had been singled out and could think of no better defense than to just go with it.

I think, in its essence, this situation means two things: my CT had good intentions but Heuker was embarrassed. This didn't go perfectly and may have been damaging to both people. It means that we must think harder about what we say within earshot of the entire class.


 * Implications**

We must always thinking about the effects of our words, thinking about students' feelings, and making sure what we intend is accomplished. If there is ever any question about our words having damaging effects we must refrain from saying them. Positive expectations and positive motivations are essential.

I'm wondering whether a one on one conversation with Heuker as he came in would have been feasible, given the time constraints on getting started with a whole room full of new students. I also wonder how Heuker would have brought up his familiarity with the curriculum if it was left for him to make the first mention of it. -LE


 * Situation**

Because my 2nd hour students take so long to get settled into their seats, quieted down and ready for instruction I decided to implement an activity at the beginning of every class period. Essentially, they need something to do as soon as they enter the room. I started doing free write type journals, where students a ﻿ re given a prom ﻿ pt on the board--a projected painting, written prompt etc. Another observation I have made about my students in 2nd hour is that they are fixated on intelligence. They are what our textbook calls "fixed mind-set" thinkers. Their abilities are static and cannot be improved. The question I asked today for free write was, "What is more important--ability or effort?" Students found this question to be very difficult, a "chicken-or-the-egg" type of question. Based on their behavior during the writing time--they talked a lot, wrote very little and were reluctant to share what they did write--I was forced to re-evaluate my strategy.

Some quotes from my kids:

"This is too hard." - Jonny "I didn't write a lot because I was just thinking." -Aaron "There is no answer. It's like the chicken and the egg." - Fallon "I don't get it." -Skylar


 * Why did it happen? What did it mean?**

I think my students responded to this question they way they did because they are, indeed, examples of students plagued by fixed mindedness. I asked this question because I wanted to assess just that. I thought their responses would reveal their mindedness. What I found instead was that their lack of response revealed just as much. Like the article said, fixed mindedness is the belief that ability and intelligence are fixed and cannot be influenced or changed by hard work. We are born with what we have and that's it. As a result, students develop an antagonistic relationship with learning. Each new experience or opportunity to learn is seen as a threat to their intelligence--they may be revealed as stupid. To me, their reluctance to share indicates a fear of intellectual risks. If they don't write anything they can't be revealed as dumb. I don't think it was that they didn't have the ability to think through the question, they were just afraid to. I am calling this intellectual inhibition. Them being faced with a question to which there is only an ambiguous answer was essentially an intellectual risk. Jonny was straight up--he said it was too hard. Fallon called it unanswerable to avoid taking the risk. Aaron "thought" a lot but never took a stance on paper. He couldn't be embarrassed if had only thought private thoughts.

I think this means that the students perceived the question as an intellectual threat--like their smarts were being attacked and revealed to an insensitive audience.


 * Implications**

I think the implications for this are easy to explain, but hard to implement. What needs to happen in this classroom is for this fixed mindedness to be transformed into growth mindedness--a belief that intelligence is plastic, growing, developing and highly susceptible to effort. What is more important--effort or ability? Certainly effort. I not only think that this fixed mindedness is causing intellectual inhibition and the fear of risk-taking, but also a competitive/closed learning environment. I don't think the students feel "safe" with us, or safe with their peers. This needs to change. We need to turn our classroom into more of safe haven, and I think that making these concerns explicit to the students may be best strategy. Simply explaining that this fixed mindedness is not only inhibiting, but also untrue.

Wow, Alex, I see you working as a Grounded Theorist here: collecting/generating data, identifying patterns in the data, and "conceptualizing" it. You give the concept-name "intellectual inhibition" to the raw data that you documented and this concept allows you to diagnose that you should to make the classroom more safe and thus conducive to student learning. I see rich analytical thinking taking place here. -LE


 * Situation **

Skyler and Chad are like 7 year old boys throwing Legos at one another. They are the most immature, annoying, boobie-pinching, arm-slugging, work-avoiding young gentlemen I've ever met. I had had enough. I decided to have a heart-to-heart with each of them last Thursday. I think that this went well. I asked them each into an office privately and gave them my spiel: "You are constantly off task. I'm not sure what they allowed you to do in middle school, but you are in high school now and your behavior won't be tolerated. I know you are capable of much more than this and my expectations for you are much higher than you're achieving right now. I am giving you one last chance to own up to your behavior and engage with your work. I have discipline plans in place, I'd be happy to meet with your parents and run it by them. Can you do better?" I think they were both in awe that they were being talked to by Mr. Karpicke--the soft spoken, nice teacher who doesn't get paid. Today, we were back down in the computer lab revising our drafts. Skyler sat down. Chad sat down right next to him. I just watched as Skyler told Chad he couldn't sit by him today because he had too much work to do. Music to my ears.


 * Why did it happen? What does it mean? **

Why did Skyler change his tune? Maybe because he's afraid of his parents. Maybe someone other than me has high expectations for him. Maybe he felt respected, scolded, but respected. Perhaps he was tired of acting childish with Chad. Maybe he felt his potential being wasted. The more interesting questions is why did Chad decide to engage like Skyler did? Perhaps for the same reasons Skyler decided to--no one has high expectations for Chad, he feels that he can't achieve, maybe he doesn't take me seriously. Regardless, he was passed up by his friend for schoolwork. That might affect him. Who knows?

It seems that your "implications for practice" are to continue addressing behavior issues with one on one talks when feasible. You demonstrated respect for students, rather than exasperation, and Skyler responded by demonstrating self-respect and ownership of his own learning and behavior the next day. Nice work! It's wonderful to document successes as well as crises as critical incidents. -LE


 * Situation **


 * ====communicate high expectations for students' academic and professional achievement? (Chenoweth 103) ====
 * ====foster students' safe, meaningful relationships with each other and with adults?(Kohn 98) ====

Today I began a two day lesson on Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death". I realized when planning for this lesson that the language of the story is quite difficult, especially for 9th grade. When designing i decided that I would take quite a bit of time teaching the skill of clues from context, gaining overall meaning first and using the medium of discussion to gain more understanding. I hit a wall similar to one I have discussed before--intellectual inhibition, fear of taking risks, general anxiety over being judged, which deters students from discussion and building on each other's ideas. Today, before beginning out lesson I took the time to explicitly talk about what discussions were, how they operated and how I hoped students wouldn't be afraid to share their thoughts, even if they weren't sure if they were right. I explained how I understood the language was difficult, but that we would make it through it together--we were creating a safe place. While this didn't lift all of the anxiety, I did observe it relieving students a little. I want to continue being explicit about our "safe" environment.


 * What did it happen? What does it mean? **

Hi Alex, You seem to have tackled the Implications question in the last line of your "situation" paragraph. You plan to continue being explicit about safety during discussions--fostering an atmosphere of risk-taking. You plan to do this because it did seem to achieve its objective: relieving students' anxiety. Have you mentioned this safety again? -LE


 * Situation**


 * "ask students to explain how and why things work and why they matter? (Glasser 131)" **


 * I am teaching a short story unit and the question, one which I hoped to be prepared for, arose, "Why do we have to read this? It's boring." I wanted to say something like, "To develop your literacy, to prepare you for the fundamental arguments of our society, to encounter the world with a tender heart, but an analytical perspective, to teach you to make connections, ask questions, criticize, appreciate art and face down a challenge. I am teaching you to be proud of yourself and this story is helping me." That is hard for students to understand though, and it isn't really written in the GLCE's like that. I told them that we were developing analytical skills because those skills would help them to be more successful. I'm not sure they believed me. I'm not sure they should have. Many don't see the purpose of literature in a world of TV and Internet. I was discouraged by my lesson today. I didn't get the things across that I wanted to. I felt emotionally spent. I know that I wanted to teach my students "The Scarlet Ibis" for all of these reasons, and I want them to see just how important this little story is--how much it has to offer them. Many don't care. **

Thanks for your honesty here, Alex. Did you find some source of emotional energy to sustain you last week? Have the "Why are we doing this?" questions arisen again? If so, how did/would you articulate why it matters--as you listed above--in a way that students could digest? Does the content/pace of the curriculum make you feel pressured to not spend much time on the question? -LE

**Situation**


 * To what extent does the curriculum at your school teach equality and social justice? (Goodlad 135).
 * Give students and teachers a "sense of community and common purpose?" (Hirsch 146).
 * Include themes of care? (Noddings 148).

I have been thinking lots about caring for students, creating community in the classroom and stamping out intellectual inhibition. Today, instead of continuing our work with the literary elements, I decided to take the class period and facilitate a forum. These were the topics: mutual respect, maturity, academic community, how and why we talk, how does it feel to be you? I have been noticing tension, hositility and disdain in a number of my students and I thought it would be productive to get things out in the open, have students share their concerns and see if we could come to some kind of resolution. Here are some comments I heard:

Students: "I don't understand why anyone should make fun of someone else. They don't know anything about you." "Maturity isn't being serious all the time, it's knowing when you're supposed to be serious." "We are all immature sometimes." "Every person you meet has a story." "Being judged feels terrible."

Many of my students felt they had been disrespected, made fun of, judged and many other things by their peers. Not necessarily just in my class, but everywhere. Many of them felt that they "already had enough crap to deal with without worrying about being ridiculed." My main comment was, "I really value your ideas. I really want to know what you think."

I don't know if this time will have much influence on my students, but I feel better having spent the time to address these. And hopefully now they know how much I care.


 * Why did it happen? What does it mean?**

This happened because I've been noticing and feeling tension in my room. It hasn't been the community that I envisioned, but the potential is so palpable that I want to try. I think this means a couple of things: (1) I am realizing how much I care about my students (2) they are revealing their great potential bit by bit.


 * Implications**

Maturity comes with time. I think these types of moments are important. Not only is the discussion useful (being explicit and direct tends to work), but students can tell that these issues are something the instructor cares about.

Excellent work during the Forum, Alex. I am so glad to see you have time to address the negative dynamics head on, rather than being pressed by curricular demands to always go to the next topic (story, vocab list etc) without ever hearing students' voices & opinions. We missed you in class. Are you ill this week? -LE


 * Pre-Test/Final Paper Plans**

I am finishing a unit on Sandra Cisneros' //The House on Mango Street//. I am not sure what the next unit will be. I will certainly be writing my paper on whatever this unit is. In my other classes we are doing a unit which covers both Homer's //The Odyssey// and //parts of speech//. Our pre-test for this unit is a grammar pre-test. This test is issue simply to see what our students already know and where their knowledge ends. I could do something with this unit, though I am not as involved with it as I am with my 2nd hour. Any ideas?

I think the main difficulty with this project will be these criteria:

5. compose a narrative of what happened in order to glean more information about the strengths and weaknesses of your lesson design and implementation 6. document the student learning that did or did not occur


 * Multiple Intelligences **

My intelligences, if I had to think metacognitively, are linguistic, existential and intrapersonal. My mind I think works in an abstractly analytical way. This, I feel, is a hindrance to working on this long paper. Not only will I think too much about it beforehand while never really getting anything usable down, I will dwell on my existential state while working on it. I am able to think analytically, contemplatively and theoretically. I am also able to organize these thoughts linguistically. These intelligences work together well in these ways. The issue, however, is making myself get started, overcoming my self-doubt and doing so in a timely manner. I think better alone, but I get easily distracted. I have difficulty getting comfortable in a working situation so I get up and move a lot. I think this may tie into my existential thought process. I am a dweller. I can't help it.

Alex,

I think your intelligences equip you well to write the kind of paper assigned: self-assessment in relationship to close noticing of what happened when you taught and assessing students' knowledge before and after. I think I share some of the same intelligences you do. I often think so deeply about a single point in a paper that I lose the forward momentum. I'm trying to learn to keep a reading journal on a given topic, forcing myself to write down my thoughts in rough draft form and then turning them into a linear narrative once I have a lot written. I haven't mastered this habit or this process, though, so I can't testify to its effectiveness. Good luck settling down to write. Remember that the father of the Essay, Montaigne, wrote "rambling" prose on a single topic, following the train of his thoughts down whatever route they led. And we celebrate him for showing us this map of his mind. Believe in the beauty of your own mental processes!

And I look forward to hearing whether you will be teaching The Odyssey in 2nd hour also or something else.

LE