Teaching check in

Here it is, mid-year, and in most public schools, they're either done for the year, or winding it down. This is a good time as any to reflect on the way things are going.

Just before new year, I decided to switch the reading curriculum from all individualized instruction (do what you want, when you want--which is what I inherited) to mostly-whole class (everybody works on the same stuff) instruction. I did this for several reason both selfish and altruistic.

For one, it's a hell of a lot easier to grade assignments if they're basically the same. The other way (completely individualized instruction), you need a bunch of different answer keys, so you can't take things home to grade unless you have a complete set at home. It's also way easier to answer questions about an assignment, if everyone's working on the same thing because you know the material already. The other reason I decided to switch over is because for the most part, I am getting a lot of students who have the same approximate reading level. Instead of differentiating the whole class, I just put the "outliers" (both higher students and lower students like ELLs on a different plan). So in a given group of 15 kids, 2 or 3 may be working on other material, so it's easier if I have 4 things going rather than 15!

But of course, it's not just about me. The main reason why I did the switch was to better meet the need of the students. I switched to doing thematic units because they seem to like having a common experience as a class (rather than as individuals in a room), and being able to work together and collaborate on their assignments. The way I formatted the new whole class thematic curriculum was designed to result in shorter assignments, but more of them, so as to increase the amount of work the students actually complete during class. Using the textbooks mean the students may complete 1 assignment per class, which in my opinion wasn't enough practice for them. This way, I started getting a much higher volume of work (output) from each student.

The other problem was the format--traditional textbook assignments. Most of the assignments in the books felt too long to some of the students, so they wouldn't finish them...they'd kind of stall out midway and take forever to get them done. In the new system, each assignment is short (usually just one page of reading and one page of questions). Most students can finish three assignments per block, and the remaining time to work on something that requires sustained attention (such as reading novels for pleasure, or other reading material). Those who need the whole time to finish the work still have enough time to get the minimum done, and those who only get some of the work done aren't penalized as long as they finish SOMETHING during class. You'd think the students would balk at doing a lot more work, but generally they haven't. In fact, if anything, they seem to enjoy it. Most seem to enjoy the feeling of "finishing" something during class, so it's self-reinforcing, and they are usually quite happy to stay on task the entire time because it doesn't take forever to experience that "I'm done" feeling.

This kind of format works really well for students with ADHD and ADD, who are notorious for not getting work done in school, (and therefore not making much progress) because in this system, they can usually focus long enough to get one assignment done. The kids with ADD have a hard time staying focused on long reading assignments because they tend to space out midway through and forget what the story was about. The kids with ADHD have a similar problem, but it's compounded by the fact that they tend to get physically restless and chatty. The short-but-more-frequent assignment cycle breaks the long class period into manageable chunks, so both groups dramatically increase their likelihood of being successful at completing some of the work.

As far as how the curriculum is designed, I periodically ask the students to give me a list of things they're interested in, then go to my existing library of reading workbooks to see what material I have on that topic (or a closely related topic), then add more to it from online sources to round out a whole week of classes. I feel like this way, we use the existing instructional materials in a more meaningful fashion, and I can fill in the curricular gaps with more challenging material for extension activities. Then I pull everything I find together in a master binder, that I use for a whole week, then put away until the next year. Some things we've done so far this year are Black History, the Harry Potter series, China, Marine Mammals, Mexico, and Greek Mythology.

It isn't a perfect system, and there are still some minor issues, but it works a lot better than the old system where everything was individualized and the kids did whatever they wanted. Occasionally I still struggle with finding more advanced material for the students who need that (it's hard to find reading programs that go past the 9th grade level) and I think I tend to go heavier on the non-fiction, but I think overall, this way works pretty well in terms of ensuring the students get as much practice with various reading skills as is possible given the kinds of students I have (reluctant, often with reading disabilities) and the logistical constraints (a self-paced program where students can be there for as little as two weeks, or as long as two years).