Strategery
I'm pissed. I've barely written anything, haven't read, haven't relaxed since I took this teaching position, filling in for a friend while she's on maternity leave. The thing is, I've never taught seventh grade, nor do I ever want to teach it again. I've been there five weeks and four days now, and I'll be there for a month and a day more.
One of the biggest struggles with this position is that I teach Language Arts classes, labeled "Strategic." Nothing is strategic about them, unless this said strategy is cramming a bunch of illiterates into a two-period English class as a way to make sure that no child (punk-ass or otherwise) is left behind. I have two of these Strategic classes, which means I have these types of kids for two back-to-back periods—four hours of ADD, ADHD, as well as learning disabled kids, many of whom obviously do not get enough attention at home. Now, they aren't all like that. Trust me. Some have learned that if they do their homework, by golly, their grades will go up AND they'll do better on their tests. On the other hand, I have students who have reading comprehension problems. I have students who have spelling problems. I have a couple dyslexics. I have a handful of "504" kids. A kid on a 504 plan is supposed to be given accomodations, such as more time or sent to a quiet part of the class and given printed class notes, to complete work. The thing is, most Strategic kids could use extra time and work time away from the others. But if sticking 36 of these types of students into a two hour class is a strategy, then so be it.
I strategized recently how to teach them to write a response to literature essay. I spent over a week working on it. I held their hands and walked them through an introduction, through each body paragraph, even the conclusion, so much structure. (I swear that teaching this is only going to hurt my own essay writing) We spent an entire day on breaking down the writing prompt so they knew what things needed to be addressed for the essay. I told them, do not summarize; I don't want book reports. Well, I now know that Strategic seventh graders need Q-tips. Will I make them rewrite it? Of course. Is it a burden? Hell yes. In the second week, I should've realizd that writing was going to be a chore for them when I intercepted this piece of writing that was traveling across the room:
I'm pleased to see that these left behind kids know their Web acronyms.
One of the biggest struggles with this position is that I teach Language Arts classes, labeled "Strategic." Nothing is strategic about them, unless this said strategy is cramming a bunch of illiterates into a two-period English class as a way to make sure that no child (punk-ass or otherwise) is left behind. I have two of these Strategic classes, which means I have these types of kids for two back-to-back periods—four hours of ADD, ADHD, as well as learning disabled kids, many of whom obviously do not get enough attention at home. Now, they aren't all like that. Trust me. Some have learned that if they do their homework, by golly, their grades will go up AND they'll do better on their tests. On the other hand, I have students who have reading comprehension problems. I have students who have spelling problems. I have a couple dyslexics. I have a handful of "504" kids. A kid on a 504 plan is supposed to be given accomodations, such as more time or sent to a quiet part of the class and given printed class notes, to complete work. The thing is, most Strategic kids could use extra time and work time away from the others. But if sticking 36 of these types of students into a two hour class is a strategy, then so be it.
I strategized recently how to teach them to write a response to literature essay. I spent over a week working on it. I held their hands and walked them through an introduction, through each body paragraph, even the conclusion, so much structure. (I swear that teaching this is only going to hurt my own essay writing) We spent an entire day on breaking down the writing prompt so they knew what things needed to be addressed for the essay. I told them, do not summarize; I don't want book reports. Well, I now know that Strategic seventh graders need Q-tips. Will I make them rewrite it? Of course. Is it a burden? Hell yes. In the second week, I should've realizd that writing was going to be a chore for them when I intercepted this piece of writing that was traveling across the room:
Well yeah you welcome! Well dang! Why is David going to san Francisco for YEAH! I'll let my mom know Hope she says yes! Oh! Yeah! I want to smoke the marijuana girl so we could get blazed!!! yeah you know what I's saying wer'e like this and wer'e going to be like dis. Yuper's serio! (hah hah hah hah) LOL.
I'm pleased to see that these left behind kids know their Web acronyms.
posted by matty at 4:46 PM
2 Comments:
I just wanted to give you props for using "strategery". Your blog was next in line after mine, in case you were wondering how I got to your page.
Cao.
Seventh graders are pure evil. I subbed seventh grade for a while. I wanted to strangle each and every one of them.
Thinking about it still makes me twitchy.
Good luck, Matt!
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