B.A. Social Studies
In the past few years, I have struggled with getting students to submit well-thought out and well-written academic work. I require reading, writing, and critical thinking activities on a daily basis in my classroom and have not gotten the results from students that I was hoping for. The strategy that I have set this year has (so far) been working and my students are producing higher quality writing and communicating what they have learned at a higher level. Instead of hammering out and going over the syllabus on the first day of class, we spent the day getting to know each other, what we enjoy, our passions, and what we are proud of in a brief collaborative activity using NearPod. At the end of last year, I also had students create small posters for the incoming students to take in with "tips to be successful in government class." The students left them on the walls of the classroom over the summer and I included them into the day one activity in a three minute gallery walk. It is interesting that there is not anything earth-shattering on the posters: "take notes," "act your age, not your shoe size," "listen when Mr. Anton talks," "use flash cards to study," "don't sleep," "don't play computer games," etc. It seems to have clicked that taking care of the basic responsibilities of the being a student will help to take care of business in the class. I am also working to better incorporate the use of portfolios to provide students the opportunity to show their growth over time while working hard to provide time for reflection and revision before submitting final work. To begin the course on day two, I had students take a brief citizenship test online--no grade, just for their information--and it was quite amazing how much effort they put in and also how they realized where they stand regarding their knowledge coming into the class. I accompanied this with their first portfolio entry where they elaborated on where they were regarding the quiz compared to where they thought they should be as well as asking them to discuss their thoughts on the purpose of government courses. After they submitted their first revision, we read an article titled, "A Case for Writing Below a Grade 8 Reading Level" (https://www.wriber.com/writing-below-a-grade-8-reading-level/) and discussed that students will be expected to communicate their learning at a high level. In order to do this, I had students revise their work and use the Flesch-Kincaid index to modify their writing below the eight grade level in order to ensure that over half of the United States population would understand it.. Finally, we discussed academic writing and I provided them with the list of writing recommendations that I have put together throughout my career of the most common writing errors by students and had students use it to evaluate their essays. This activity immediately created an atmosphere that reinforces the fact that I want students to make a first attempt, reflect, and revise their work before they are assessed while also placing an emphasis on the soft-skills that I want my students to take with them when they leave. |
AuthorBrian Anton currently serves the Purdy R-II (Missouri) School District as the 7-12 Principal after working in the PK-12 Assistant Principal and Athletic Director roles for two years. In the 12 years prior to moving into administration, he served as an award-winning high school social studies teacher. Archives
September 2018
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