Student Profile and observations

Observations at a Michigan High School, and a Student Profile

The school:

Lincoln High School [all names changed maintain anonymity] is in a small community on the outskirts of suburban Detroit.  Although the school itself sits alongside a sedate intersection with little in sight, it is but two or three miles from a major shopping area consisting of a large shopping mall, a multiplex, and other assorted venues.  The school appears new and well-kept up: there is no graffiti or any other sort of urban marking that I noticed.  There is a large glass front outside the cafeteria that makes the school appear both modernistic and novel, as well as a large dome upon the roof hinting at an indoor theater or swimming pool.  Inside, the school is both cavernous and labyrinthine, with monochromatic cinderblock walls filled with bustling students.   

The Classroom:       

This is obviously the classroom of an English teacher.  There are various posters attached to the walls such as an aid to correct punctuation and a reproduction of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”.  There are stacks of dictionaries stacked upon a counter, and sitting next to them, a copy of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.  The carpet is a dull utilitarian brown, and there is a single narrow window overlooking a wide roof.  The desks (solid, uncomfortable looking things) are set together in groups of four or six.  There is a smart board at one end of the class, and the large teacher’s desk sits in the corner.  A small table stacked with papers sits between the whiteboard and the door. 

The Students:

There are 20+ ninth-graders in a normal class.  They are almost all Caucasian with little racial diversity amongst them.  They are generally well behaved, but if the teacher’s attention wanders the slightest bit, the noise level in the class instantly rises.  As class proceeds, I see some students sneaking looks at their cell phones, a pair of boys kicking at each other under their desks, and others whispering to each other, but on the whole, they are attentive and disciplined. 

The Teacher

Ms. Smith is a young teacher, in her late 20s I would guess.  She has brown hair, an engaging manner, and wears “formally informal” clothes.  She is willing to engage the students and be friendly with them, for instance she tells them a funny story about seeing a movie, and talks about her sister-in-law’s vegetarian shepard's pie.   She does not hesitant to be stern, however, and tolerates nobody talking out of turn.  If there is chatter while she is talking, she will simply stop until it vanishes, and then resume her lesson.  If it becomes a dull roar during writing time, she will ring a bell to call attention back to her.  A couple of times, she reminded them to focus, and she also called attention to and reminded them of the classroom expectations list upon the wall.  To me, she was cheerful and happy to help in any way she could, and responded to both my emails and my questions quickly and helpfully.  She also made copies of writing samples and lesson plans, for which I am grateful. 

The Lessons

I observed ten hours: six of these hours were normal classroom observation times, and the other four were “essentials” classes.  The regular reading and writing classes generally something like this:   

 Ms. Smith started class with little or no preamble.  First, as a starter, the students copied down the information on the screen (or instance, the definition of “apocalyptic”) and wrote the answer to a question she had put on the board: for instance “The _______ in SF stories creates an apocalyptic tone”.  Then she drew Popsicle sticks for people to read from their sentences so many people got a chance to read at random.  She used the reading (for instance Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “If I forget thee O Earth” and Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring) to illustrate literary and writing points, and had the students write about it their notebooks.  There were also write-arounds, paragraph-writing, teacher demonstrations of various writing skills such as finding and using quotes, and exit slips (work to be done before class is ended).  Another topic she used for discussion was dominant and counter narratives, after which she had the students make t-charts (comparison charts).              

Essentials class

The students in the essential classes were considered to be a little lower in English / writing ability.  Here are some samples of their writing:

Soilders are so afraid of the war and anywar that they are putonleave.  Charlie will react to have therapeudic concilling  when the war is done because he was afraid when he saw death on the ground.

Soldier are affected by war and having to killother  people, get shot at and having to be away from family.  Another affect is the life risking.  Another one is having guilt when fellow soldiers die when your still alive.  Losing his friend.  Having fear of life. 

Soliders are affected by war cause they still think that will be called back.  They get bad dreams that cause depression, or suicide cause they don’t want to see that dream ever again.  They have guilt on killing a person that was forced on doing nothing at all.

 There were only six students total in the essentials class, two of whom were African-American girls and the other four were Caucasian boys.  Ms. Smith was quite friendly and intimate with all of them, and had obviously grown close to these students.  When talking to them, she spoke easily and comfortably with them, and gradually and skillfully led the students to the point she was making so that it was almost as if they discovered the knowledge together.  She also gave these students a little more leeway: they could listen to music as they worked, for instance.  Yet she could be sharp with them too, as when one student made a laughing comment concerning suicide, and she told him sternly that his language was inappropriate.  

A Student Profile 

Of the six students, one was of particular observational interest to me.  Carl first drew my attention when he was in the regular classes. To some questions Ms. Smith asked him, he appeared detached from class and apathetic.  Where other students gave detailed answers, or at least answered at length, he was mostly monosyllabic.  To each of her questions he simply answered a dull “sure”.   I was not surprised to find him in the essentials class.  

Ms. Smith put me with him to work on his Romeo and Juliet paper, telling me that his score was a three when the goal was to get him to a four at least.  We worked on his paper for about half an hour, and I showed him what he could better and how he could do it; we also used a “persuasion map” Ms. Smith had downloaded from the NCTE website.  He agreed with everything I said (“sure”) and while I was able to draw him out a little (he likes basketball), it was not much.  Ms. Smith told me it was good for him to hear words of advice concerning his writing from sources other than his regular teachers.  

From “Romeo and Juliet, Final Draft”

Enemys in any movie, book, or play are normally not good, they create downfalls.  In the play Romeo and Juliet there are enemys and downfalls.  The character most responsible for the outcome of the play was an enemy of the Montagues.  His name is Thybalt.  He was a kingsman, an angry dude that did not like the Montigues…  

My final observation hour, all of the students were working on their multi-genre project.  I asked some of them what they were doing for it: they answered that they were writing tall tales, a wedding invitation, some history, some song lyrics, and some poetry.  Carl was writing a newscast, and he graciously allowed me to make a copy of it. 

[The original was in all caps, I have reduced the text to normal size for ease of reading]

Carl: There were these explosions in the woods in front of my friends house, it was scary, I think it some kind of bottle that was filled with CO2 in it.  I thought the woods were burn down. 

Reporter: So you think it was a CO2 cartridge? 

Carl: Yes, it happened around 2:30 am, and then it was gone.  A few minutes later there were bright colors and I went to my friends window cause we were party and  me and a few friends spent the night and there were flames in the woods.  It freaked me out so I called 911.  

Reporter: So I can sum thid up a little, your friend had a party and there were a lot of people there I guess? 

Carl: Yes, there were about 100 kids here but none of us was aloud to go in the woods. 

Reporter: Thanks for interview.  We will keep in touch with you...

The students in the essential classes have good writing skills, but they are often hidden behind a thicket of bad word choices, incorrect punctuation, and awkward phrasing.  As an English teacher, it will be my job to help such students as those in the essential class to find their potential as writers, and I hope to have Ms. Smith’s patience and skill. 

Questions and / or recommendations :  

If I had a student like Carl (and I will have a student like Carl, no doubt), I would have to wonder why he has no interest in being a good (or at least competent) writer  It's such an essential skill, and one of the "Three Rs".  I am bothered by his lethargic and apathetic "sure". He doesn't seem to care.  But why not?  I will have to work hard at making bridges with such a student.  For instance Carl likes basketball, so I might recommend books on sports to read, or help him find ways to work sports topics into the papers he has to write.  All students are passionate about something, it's just a question of finding out what it is and figuring out how it can be written into a lesson plan.