Success in a Sea of Failures
by Kelly Bratt
This year has been a hard one. There have been growing pains, tears, frustration and giving up — and that’s not just from the kids; it’s me too. Like every year, a dozen new responsibilities have been added to my plate and I spend most days just treading water, trying not to drown. I last wrote in September and I haven’t picked up the pen…’er the keyboard since, almost afraid to reflect on the beginning of the year for fear I might completely sink.
With a whole new crew of students this year, there is one class in particular that has been a challenge. Building relationships with them took much longer, and establishing classroom routines are still something we are working on. They are by far the noisiest class I have ever had. The constant whir of talking, whispering, humming, singing, pencil tapping and table banging is enough to drive me, and probably anyone, bananas each day. I’ve had to dig deep into my bag of classroom behavior management tricks, and I’ve had to use a whole lot of new ones. I’ve had to redesign my lesson plans so many times, hoping I’d eventually find the skill/level/steps that would “click” with my students. I’d end the class thinking, There’s no learning happening in here. And that caused me a lot of despair.
I wish I could say, “then one day, BAM! I found the magic strategy” or everything changed because they realized how much I cared about them as human beings, not just “learners” — a term that I cannot stand. But I cannot say those things. There has not been a miraculous change. This class is still hard. I still have days that I worry about what they are actually learning. But I keep going, and now that I’m sitting her reflecting; I know there have been a few tiny glimmers of success. I have to hang on to those, no matter how small.
Success #1: I haven’t quit. I keep trying. I have found that I need to break down my grading of writing into more manageable pieces for this class. I use an adapted version of the writing checklists from Units of Study Writing curriculum. For our informational writing unit, I solely focused on the structure of writing for the first part or bend of the unit. This helped me build goal setting skills with the students by having them self select a goal from just this part of the checklist/rubric. When I assessed their first writing piece, I only looked at the skills in the structure section of the checklist. This made my feedback much more targeted, and it saved a lot of time. My feedback matched their goals, which felt really valuable. For the second part of the unit, I taught specifically to the development of their writing. This time students selected a structure goal as well as a development goal. This time when I assessed their goals I gave feedback on both sections: structure and development. This took much longer. I’m not sure my students value feedback yet, but at least I found a way to better manage my own time and energies.
Success #2: One of my goals this year was to use more mentor texts just above their writing skill level, so that they can have multiple opportunities to notice qualities of strong writing. I have incorporated more mentor writing samples and opportunities for them to study them for each unit. So far, they are doing a good job at pointing out skills they see in these pieces of writing. A few students even mentioned on their writing reflection form that the mentor texts were helpful. I’m excited by this. I not only want to continue with this, but I think I could do it more often.
Success #3: I have accepted that the *magic* isn’t always there. This year, my students need me to be really clear and give very explicit directions on what to put in their writing. With this class, I have found that the more explicit I am about their writing tasks, the more successful they are overall. For example, Instructing my writers to put in 3 transitions in a body paragraph, really goes against the writing teacher that I’ve always thought that I am. But these formulaic strategies have worked for this crew. Giving them 1 step directions and a set amount of time to complete the task has also been successful. They just don’t have the independence to do more than 1 step moves at this time. I feel that creating these small confines for their writing takes away a bit of the creativity not to mention the fun. But they do need these foundational writing skills and I don’t think this group will be willing to take risks until they feel success from following clear cut directions on how to write. The magic or joy of writing isn’t here yet for them, but it doesn’t mean that it won’t ever be. I suppose it all comes back to knowing my students, my writers. It’s the relationships that we build. And that’s what matters most of all anyway.
So as I head back into the classroom in January, I’ll be going forward, holding on to these small bits of success. And I go forward knowing that I can rise to this challenge. I can be there for my students when they struggle and succeed. I will celebrate with them no matter how small or big the victory.
