Author: Ina L.

Miscellaneous, Teaching Tips

Holiday Homework Dilemma

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As the holidays draw near I can’t help but recollect the argument that ensued with my husband every year that I taught school. No, it wasn’t about gifts or who to spend the holidays with—it was about homework.

To give homework or not over our two-week break was always a bone of contention between the two of us. For years we taught English at neighboring schools. I was at a middle school; he was at the high school. He thought his students needed something to keep them connected to school and some academic reinforcement. I felt it was their vacation and that’s just what they needed, some much needed time off and spending their holidays to some great places like the ones at https://madeinturkeytours.com.

Now don’t misunderstand. I am not anti-homework. When it is well thought out and used to practice something that has been learned in class, homework serves a great purpose. I also like homework that involves some type of long-term assignment that involves research. Homework during the course of the school year is fine with me.

It is just that I found myself a bit “fried” when it came to the winter holidays.I tried to put myself into my students’ positions and thought they would be, too.My kids just didn’t get homework over the winter break because I didn’t want homework when we returned to school. For me to make the decision was about as simple as that.They might consider it a present if they wanted to.My husband’s students did get homework,perhaps a paper to write or a book to read.Not a huge amount granted, but enough to have to be concerned about it being turned in.

We never came to a resolution about the holiday homework dilemma. Do you think there might be one? Where do you stand?

Teaching Tips

So Many Books, So Little Time

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“So Many Books, So Little Time” is the saying emblazoned on my favorite sweatshirt. I feel this way about all the books I’d like to read. Being a voracious reader and belonging to a book group hardly slakes my thirst for books. Either reading a novel to or with my class was always the highlight of my teaching day.

Often I would choose a novel to read aloud to seventh graders. You’d be amazed at how attentive they were as they listened for about 10 minutes at the end of the hour. I’d usually choose something that had some action in it and something they could relate to. Hatchet was one of my favorites. One time I read James and the Giant Peach to them. They were truly mesmerized as they tried to visualize the giant peach flying through the sky.

Literature was my favorite thing to teach. I could get all kinds of fascinating conversations going when we read books like The Cay, Anne Frank, The Twenty-One Balloons, and A Wrinkle in Time. Activities that linked the books made them all the more interesting to the kids. They’d weave a place mat while blindfolded when we read The Cay and create their own tesseract for A Wrinkle in Time. I’d have them keep reading response journals and I’d read them periodically. It was gratifying to see how they enjoyed the books.

Right now I have Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book on my desk waiting for me to read, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is in my briefcase. These are two books teachers tell me I need to read. I wonder if I were in a classroom if I would be teaching these. What else would I need to read? What are kids favorites as opposed to what is required? And is there a required book these days? So what do you think I should read? What about your students reading? What do you want them to read and what must they read? With so many books out there, maybe I’ll get a new sweatshirt that says “So Many Books, So Many Questions.”

Lesson Plans, Teacher Resources

National Day on Writing

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You might already be aware that Senate Resolution 310 declares October 20, 2009 as the National Day on Writing. I read the whole resolution (you can read it here). The part I particularly like reads, “the National Day of Writing highlights the importance of writing instruction and practice at every educational level and in every subject area.” All I could think of were all the opportunities for writing that exist without our schools. From kindergarteners to seniors in high school, the chances to write are endless. They can be structured or open ended. They can be done with crayons, elementary pencils, and sleek ballpoint pens; on laptops and white boards. The writing can tell stories, fill out forms, give directions, share common experiences, say thank you, or remind someone about homework. The list goes on and on.

Reading the resolution also made me take a look at some of my favorite TCR writing books. Through the years I have worked on a goodly number of them. For the youngest writers, I’ve always liked Emergent Writer’s Workshop and Beginning Writing. I like the practice that these books allow our littlest scribes. For all grade levels, our Meeting Writing Standards books are excellent. Featuring straightforward lessons and activities for writing stories, reports, poetry, letters, and narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive pieces, these books are comprehensive in their coverage of the various types of writing. Meeting Writing Standards books help students to hone their authoring skills. For lots of fun and getting kids involved, Get Up! Get Noisy! Get Writing! has all types of engaging writing lessons. My favorite lesson in this book is called “Picky, Picky! Just Pick One!” It turns fiction writing into a game of chance as students draw their story elements, including characters, setting, and objects, from a grab bag.

So grab hold of the opportunity to celebrate the National Day on Writing, no matter what subject or grade you teach, by giving your students the chance to write.

Teacher Resources

A Student of Dance

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When I’m not busy at TCR I can often be found dancing. My husband and I have become enamored of ballroom dancing., with the tango being our favorite. Had you asked me a few years ago if this would have been the case, I probably would have laughed out loud. And yet now, the tango has filled many hours of my nights and weekends. It has taken me over a year to even begin to understand it and to get my body to go along with the rhythms. We have gone to lessons, workshops, and competitions to hone our skills. We go to classes and then come home and practice. We listen to music to decide if it is right for the dances we want to do. Then we practice to it. We critique our work, looking in mirrors as we twirl around then practice yet again. We learn a new step and then practice it. We begin to master new things. Then we test out to the next level and begin the whole process anew. In short, we have become students.

The questions asked of our dance lessons,– “What will I learn in this lesson? How can I understand all this new material? Is it at the right skill level for me? Will it capture my interest?” — are the same questions that students can ask of any lesson that comes from our books.

After the questions comes the practice — be it for dance, multiplication, or handwriting. Then there’s a whole new set of questions: “Do the lessons have meaningful practice? Is there enough practice for a specific skill? Are the standards being met?” The list of comparison goes on, but the lesson that I have taken from this is that my being a student has informed my work as Editor in Chief in an educational publishing house.

It’s not the dancing, which is great fun, but the process that I have to go through, just like any child in a classroom, that has brought a new dimension to dance. It is rather exciting to realize that something that I’m enjoying so much has brought me to a new level of thinking about our books. The lessons in our books need to continue to reflect this process so students can continue to learn at the highest level possible.