The creative writing unit

I'm getting some good responses, although there's still plenty of chaos and envelope-pushing in class. Yesterday I did a 10-minute free write with the kids. Mrs. D. made it work by offering everyone 25 extra points for just putting their heads down and writing, and as soon as that happened you could have heard a pin drop.

They got very invested in their free writes, and to my surprise a lot of them wanted to share with the whole group. I had them commenting on the details that really stood out, and they all stayed constructive. No one really ran anyone else down, at least not in terms of the writing, although there were plenty of sartorial comments, as usual. ("Get them undies back in your pants, boy!")

One mistake I made was to pass around copies of a "Contract of Responsibility" that I had already signed and then collect them. I should have collected the contracts after the students had signed them, countersigned them myself, and then handed them back to the students so they could be reminded that they had promised to do their best work and to be respectful. I also didn't do a very good job of explaining the differences between the class assignment, which is to do a 450-word short story including three drafts, and the writing competition assignment, which requires a minimum of 700 words. But by the end of the period all of them got the idea.

Today a lot of the class was absent, so things went relatively well even though Mrs. D was out for the day and there was a substitute. Even a few of the worst behavior cases were getting into their stories. I printed out a 300-word competition finalist story from Figment.com and read it to them. They didn't see all the spelling and grammatical errors, but they could still tell it wasn't much better than what they themselves had written the day before. I also printed a screen shot of the author's page - she's a "regular teenager" who lived in L.A. and has recently moved to the East Coast - and passed it around. (What a boon a Smart Board would be!!) I have a feeling one of the guys in the class fell a little in love with her, because he held onto the handout for five minutes before passing it to someone else and then wanted it back later. Her picture is very appealing.

Once again, a lot of people were excited to share what they had written. Many of the stories were about rape, murder and abuse. The sub and I both wondered to what extent these were eyewitness accounts, or even experienced by the writers themselves.

The principal, Mr. S, dropped by a couple of times. Towards the end, when we had finished workshopping a bunch of beginnings and first drafts, most of the kids were sort of hanging out although several said they wanted to work more on their stories. Mr. S came in and I didn't even notice at first. The sound level in the room did not go down, the kids still were wandering around, and Mr. S was chatting with them as well. It didn't seem to bother him that there wasn't on-task instruction going on, so I certainly wasn't going to let it bother me.

He came over to me and said, "If there were two closed-circuit cameras in every classroom, recording everything that went on here, there would be a serious change in attitude. A serious change."

I ventured, "I don't know how the teachers' union would feel about that."

"They'd be wise to go for it," he replied. Mr. S is probably about 20 years younger than me. He has a soft face, usually with some scraggly auburn beard growth, and wears very nice suits. I've heard that public school principals make six figures; I don't know if that's still true, or if it was ever true in this district, but the difference in salary between Mrs. D and Mr. S is very obvious in their wardrobe.

"It would help with the parents," he explained earnestly. "'You want to know why your kid is getting a D? You want to know why your kid is failing? Here. I'll show you a video of him sleeping in class for 40 minutes. And I'll show you the same thing the next day.'"

I would bet money that none of the parents whose kids are sleeping through English class are going to come to the principal's office and demand to know why Junior is flunking out. But it's none of my business. I hope I never have to work in a school that treats its students even more like prison inmates than this one does.

Fights in school

A few days ago Mrs. D and I were sitting in her classroom, which has a door leading out into the cafeteria.

We started hearing shouts on the other side. "Probably a fight," Mrs. D shrugged.

I started to get up, and she added, "I don't want them coming in here."

I sat back down.

The terrible thing is, I understood exactly what she meant. Police patrol the hallways, and we knew that they would be in the cafeteria in a matter of moments - even if those moments seemed terribly long to us as we listened. But had the fighters seen the open door and run into the classroom, many more people could have gotten hurt in those close quarters - including us.

Apparently what had happened was that one of Mrs. D's students, a powerfully-built 9th grade girl who is a known gang member, ran unprovoked to another student and began beating her and kicking her in the face. The one who was attacked was the girlfriend of another of Mrs. D's students. He spent the entire afternoon looking shellshocked, his head in his hands.

As I was leaving for the day a few hours later, I saw the gang member being escorted out the door by a security guard. He just let her walk out of the school on her own. "See you whenever," she drawled to the guard.

Later on I heard that a police officer had gone to her home and slapped her mother with a fine, but for some reason the girl couldn't be arrested despite her unprovoked assault in front of witnesses. She had been suspended for ten days. I can't imagine what will happen when she tries to get into Mrs. D's classroom and the boyfriend of the girl she attacked is waiting for her there.

Two days later there was another fight in the cafeteria - once again, between two girls. This time neither was in one of Mrs. D's classes. I couldn't resist this time, and opened the door. We saw security guards arrive and break up the fight.

When the students came back into the classroom after lunch, the principal walked in and read them the riot act. "I don't want anyone talking about what you saw in there and what's been happening at this school this week, unless you want a three-day suspension yourself. This is intolerable. I don't want to hear a word about it, not in MY school."

I was shocked and disappointed. How are the teachers supposed to guide the way the students are thinking about these incidents if merely mentioning them will lead to a three-day suspension? Does the principal think the kids won't talk about it as soon as the dismissal bell rings? This approach is as misguided as believing that a refusal on parents' part to talk about the birds and the bees with their kids is going to ensure that the children remain virgins until their wedding night.

But I shouldn't expect anything different from this administration. Mrs. D is always complaining that they schedule meetings with less than 24-hours' notice, don't let the teachers know what happens with their referrals, and most importantly, dole out harsher punishments for being caught in the hallways without a pass than for cursing out a teacher in the middle of the classroom. The ten-day suspension that the attacker received earlier in the week would have been the same if she had been without a pass; insulting the teacher gets an in-school detention.

The district also contributes to misbehavior, by treating the students like prison inmates. Police patrol the hallways. The district-wide "dress code" - no hoodies or hats, no patterned fabrics, no t-shirts or jeans, only khaki, black, blue or green shirts allowed - is overly restrictive and creates an atmosphere of stifled self-expression without the possibility for pride in the sense of belonging that a real school uniform might bring. It is the worst of both worlds.

At least the kids are beginning to show some interest in my writing prompts. Several of them liked one that I adapted from a University of Chicago program, which involved having them write a chase scene out of a movie. They are enjoying commenting on which details they're finding the most telling, and they are responding more. They're also beginning to work a little better with their partners. I'm beginning to have a tiny bit of hope that my own evaluation, when my professor comes to see how I'm doing as a teacher, won't be a complete and utter disaster because of misbehavior.

Introduction/Seduction

Yesterday I introduced my creative writing unit - subtly. Mrs. D always has a writing prompt on the board when the students come into the class; I've taken over the prompts, although neither of us made that clear to them in advance.

The prompt was: "I'm usually a nice person, but one thing ticks me off. Let me tell you about it." Mrs. D gave them all instructions to begin their paragraph with these two sentences, and most of them followed the direction. I was gratified to hear one student say, "Oh man, this is going to be a good journal!"

At first, their paragraphs were disappointing. One complained about bad breath. Two complained about people who think they are funny, but aren't. One complained about people who call her "little." (She's about five foot three.) But then one girl said she hated it when her mother tells her to get something out of the kitchen, when she is standing right there and could get it herself in a second. Suddenly people who had already shared their paragraphs were raising their hands and saying they wanted to share some more.

When everyone was done sharing, I went right into the center of the empty space in the middle of the classroom and announced that this was the first writing prompt in a series that was going to help them write a 700-word story for a contest - and the first prize was $100 gift card from VISA.

I shouldn't have mentioned the word count. There was consternation at that, although several of the boys kept shushing everyone else: "Hey, she's talking real money here. I wanna know what she has to say about it."

So I told them that they did not have to submit their stories to the contest if they didn't want to. Someone asked what the deadline was, and I told them it was December 31, and that they could get feedback from me up until the deadline if they wanted. I also said they'd be working with partners, and we took a vote about whether the partners should be assigned by Mrs. D or pulled out of a hat. There was quite a bit of shouting back and forth over that, but eventually a clear majority voted for Mrs. D's judgment.

I did a draft of the list based on what she had told me about students who need a lot of help with grammar and spelling, pairing them with those who didn't have much trouble with that. The other major factor was attendance; I paired regular absentees with each other. She made a few changes, and we'll present the list tomorrow. I'm sure there will be plenty of groaning, but maybe a few people will be happy with their partners.

Today I wasn't there, but I had sent in a prompt to Mrs. D via text. She changed it slightly. I had asked, "Do you believe in Heaven and/or Hell? Why or why not?" She told me over the phone tonight that she had written: "Do you believe in an afterlife? For example: Reincarnation, Heaven, Hell, etc." She said that several people hadn't known what an afterlife was and had asked about it. Most of them wrote that they believed in Heaven and Hell because it was their religion, but some mentioned reincarnation.

Tomorrow the prompt is: "Whether you believe in Hell or not, imagine you are there. What do you see? Hear? Smell? Feel (temperature, etc.)? Who is there with you? Why? Why are you there?"

Before they share, I'll tell them we'll do things a little differently. I'll ask the class whether or not they got a real sense of what the writer thinks about Hell from the paragraph, and if so, what was in the paragraph that carried the idea? Then I'll put them into pairs, and tell them to answer the same questions for each other only more specifically. I have to ask Mrs. D. if we can change their seating arrangement for the duration of the unit.

They were so incredibly uncooperative yesterday, talking so loudly it was almost impossible to get a word in edgewise, I have pretty low expectations for my success with this. I wonder if any of them will actually finish a whole story, or even work at it in a sustained way. I wonder if any of the partner conversations will be on task. I guess I'll find out soon enough . . .

Taking control of the classroom

Another assignment from my Teaching Methods professor. It starts out with a checklist of classroom management observations I have made in my mentor teacher's classroom - which I've omitted here - and then asks a series of questions about classroom interactions.

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TAKING CONTROL OF THE CLASSROOM: OBSERVING CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

• On the basis of these observations, what would you say about the students’ perception of their teacher’s authority in the classroom? What evidence do you have to make that assumption?

  • I believe that the students know they can ignore the teacher until she starts getting upset; they quiet down for up to five minutes if she yells at them. Fortunately, her relationship with them is warm enough that they do not seem to be baiting her deliberately, but this might become a possibility as the term wears on and their frustration grows. One girl who felt she was being unjustly treated told me that she would just talk more and louder because of the referral to the principal's office that she had received. "Who are you going to be hurting if you are talking loudly in class?" I asked her. "Her," she huffed. "What about you? What about your own education?" I prodded. "No," the student insisted, "I'll be hurting her. I'll give her real bad headaches.

• What would you say is the students’ general self-esteem? How does that relate to the perceived teacher’s authority in the classroom? What evidence do you have to make that assumption?

  Most of the students believe they are not particularly intelligent. In a discussion that came up because of a writing prompt about education budget cuts and how some districts are making "pay to play" rules for sports programs, one outspoken girl stood up and said, "They can't cut sports. You know, not everyone is smart. Sports are our only chance to get to college." This girl exhibits her intelligence, as well as her lack of self-control, by improvising hip-hop refrains quite loudly in the classroom at inappropriate moments, up to four occasions during the course of a lesson. I have no doubt that she could do well academically if she used her considerable talent, verbal intelligence and leadership skills to her own educational benefit. Ironically, sports are unlikely to provide her a route to college because she is overweight.

The general perception that the students at this high school are not intelligent severely undermines the teacher's authority. They believe that they are doomed to intellectual failure in any case, so why pay attention? But I would not say that the students in general have low self-esteem. They seem to be forming a tight-knit community that looks out for each other, except when it comes to following school or classroom rules.

• Are there any generic “rules of conduct/behavior” in the classroom? How do students seem to observe them (if the case)? How does the teacher seem to reinforce them (if the case)?

The classroom rules are posted: "Be respectful, do your best work, be considerate of others." One problem is that these rules are not culturally sensitive. "Be respectful" means one thing in a European American community and it can mean something else in the African American community. Imaginative, colorful insults among peers are not necessarily considered disrespectful among African Americans, but the European American teacher is continually shocked by such displays. This lack of cultural consonance makes it easy for the students to ignore the rules as irrelevant to their lives and identities. They do understand what the teacher is talking about when she argues with them about "ragging on" each other, but they seem not to possess an effective conceptual framework to communicate their own side of the story, or even to formulate it for themselves. Thus the classroom rules are pretty much completely ignored by everyone, until the teacher becomes too frustrated and raises her voice.

School rules are unnecessarily restrictive. There is a dress code imposed by the district, including no "hoodie" sweaters, no jeans, no patterned fabrics, no strong colors and no t-shirts. The dress code is regularly broken by at least a few students each day, and much class time and teacher capital is wasted in confrontations over hoodies ("You know you're not supposed to be wearing that." "But I'm cold!"). The worst of it is that teachers are supposed to be the "front line" in enforcing the dress code even if they don't believe in it, which most of them do not. And they are not backed up at all by the administration. Usually a student will take off the offending item as long as the teacher is standing there and watching. But within a few minutes it is back on, and the teacher often gives up after a few requests.

There is no restriction on having cell phones in school, but they are not allowed to be used in class (another rule that is almost completely ignored). The bathroom break is only five minutes long, and armed security guards with piercing whistles patrol the hallways to pick up any students outside of their classrooms after the bell rings. This leads to the general perception that school is like jail. If the teacher fulfills her obligations and locks the classroom door as soon as the bell has rung, she knows the students will think of her as a prison guard. Resentment travels upward, from the students to the teacher, and from the teacher to the administration.

• Finally, what would you do differently to ensure a degree of classroom control that you think would allow you to teach your lessons this semester?

I admit to being extremely apprehensive about my prospects for success in the lessons I will be teaching. I have formulated two sets of strategies, one content-related that I have already begun to implement, and one behavior-related that I am still considering.

Content-related strategies

• Students have been told that they will be allowed to choose whether they would like their writing workshop partner's name pulled out of a hat, or chosen by the teacher. This is the most responsibility they have been given to determine a course of action since I have been observing the classroom.

• Students have been told that there is a chance to win a prize at the end of the creative writing project we will be working on.

• The project has two real-world aspects:

  • The students will be working on a short story for a contest sponsored by the website fanstory.com. They will be competing against high school students from all over the country for a $100 gift card from Visa for the best submission. The deadline for submissions is Dec. 31, 2011. The prompt is to begin a short story, at least 700 words long, with the phrase: Hell found me.

  • I will be posting all final drafts on a password-protected area of figment.com, another student writing website, so that everyone in the class with Internet access can read and comment on the stories. I will also set up a public area that will be accessible by anyone in the world, but only students with parental permission will be able to post their work there.

• The daily writing prompts will be creative for the entire week prior to the start of my lessons. These students have already reacted positively to creative writing prompts.

• The final writing prompt for the week will involve looking over the results of earlier prompts and revising earlier writing. This will be another first for the students, at least since they have been in this class.

Behavioral strategies under consideration:

• A contract, signed by each student, obliging me to submit their stories to the contest if they so request and to be available for consultation about their submissions until the deadline, as well as to notify them about whether they have won a prize or an honorable mention; and obliging them to focus on helping each other's writing become more effective in order to have a better chance at winning the prize, as well as to work hard on improving their own writing.

• Placing conditions on my obligation to submit their writing based on my opinion about whether sufficient effort was expended to make it their best possible work.

Sad student story

I was in the other English teacher's classroom at the "9th Grade Academy" last week, because my mentor teacher took a personal day. This teacher, Ms. C, is a former principal whose school was closed down - she never told me why - and who is now trying to make it through her last two years in the classroom before she can retire. "Are you REALLY SURE you want to spend THE REST OF YOUR LIFE doing this?" she asked me several times, when the class simply would not settle down and be quiet no matter how many times she raised her voice.

Unlike my mentor teacher, Ms. C has four working computers and a Smart Board - which basically a white computer touchscreen as big as a blackboard. You can type onto a connected computer and what you are typing shows up on the Smart Board; you can access the Web on it; you can run videos or presentations on it; you can switch to the document camera, place your printed-out grammar worksheet under the camera and everyone will be able to see exactly how you fill out the right answers on it. It is a terrific tool, and much more desperately needed in urban schools where the socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds of most of the students cry out for an engaging curriculum than in the suburban and private schools where such boards are already pretty ubiquitous.

Unfortunately, Ms. C doesn't make any more use of the Smart Board than my mentor, Mrs. D, makes of her room's traditional blackboard. All that was on the high-tech screen was the day's assignments, typed out instead of written in chalk. Mrs. D couldn't tell me why all of the technology was in Ms. C's room and not in hers.

Ms. C told me a terrible story, though. A few weeks ago one of her best students - she pulled out the girl's notebook to show me pages filled with writing, with that wide penmanship that looks like the outline of a daisy chain - went out to the bathroom during "lockout," when police patrol the hallways and classroom doors must be locked. Ms. C had been busy with something else and had forgotten to write her out a pass; the girl's bathroom was just across the hall and down a few feet anyway.

Her student was busted by an officer and taken to the principal's office, where she was summarily suspended for three days. When she came back in tears, the teacher ran down to the principal's office as soon as she could to plead the girl's case. The principal turned Ms. C down, saying "lockout is lockout" and he couldn't make any exceptions. The girl was suspended for three days.

I was shocked. It verges on criminal negligence to punish a motivated young woman so unjustly, perhaps destroying her desire to work hard at her education in the future. Not only that, but at a school like this one, in a rough neighborhood - a school that was labeled "failing" under the No Child Left Behind law and is only in its second year post-reorganization - students like that girl are practically worth their weight in gold, in terms of how few and far between they come. How could anyone be so shortsighted as not to realize that, and still have made it into the administration of a public school in a major city?

My professors assure me that the parents can complain and go over this principal's head, but the whole incident occurred several weeks ago. I don't know if Ms. C ever advised the parents of their options, but as she was a principal herself, she must have known that options exist.

The whole thing is utterly depressing. I'm not scared anymore to teach in an urban school because I am afraid of gang members or drug dealers in my classes. I'm scared to teach in an urban school because I'm afraid that the administrators won't have my back.