Authentic Assignments

I am planning the next unit for my 12th grade class – we will begin reading Their Eye Were Watching God and as I combed the 11/12 standards, I found that my options for a final unit assessment were slim – reflective essay or research paper. Now, the research paper seemed tempting, but I went with the reflective essay because I realized that although I have bee teaching these kids (though on the brink of adulthood) I only know surface level information about them. So I thought reflective writing might be a good opportunity to 1) get to know my students better and 2) have them engage with the material on a more personal level since my attempts with the last novel we read (The Stranger) failed.

I thought that I could have the students write reflections inspired by the themes of the novel, something more than just writing about the novel. They would also do other forms of writing and perhaps a visual representation of the novel. Then they could choose 4 – 5 assignments and include them in a portfolio with an introduction. I thought this might be a good idea because I am having trouble getting my 12th graders to turn in assignments. Although each assignment would be worth points (for completion) students would have the opportunity to revise their work or a second chance to complete the work. I’m not sure how this is going to play out, because we are rapidly approaching the end of the semester and these 12th graders are getting anxious … could this be considered an authentic assignments?

I told you ...

Critical friends and the like … I warned you in my first posting that I am not computer savvy. Indeed, I managed to effectively keep myself from logging onto my original blog by either losing my password, writing it down incorrectly, or entering an entirely different email address all together. So I must begin anew.

I think it becomes very hard to keep any personal drama away from the classroom, particularly if it is something serious and out of your control. What happens when you simply have no emotional or mental energy to deal with your students – even though they are acting as they have been all semester? I had long week with my 9th grade class last week, and I am happy that I have next week off because it gives me some time to reflect. What do you do when your students flat out refuse to do what you’ve asked them? My first reaction was to say “Do it because I told you.” But I know that if I were in their position, I would get frustrated, perhaps even laugh, at that type of response. In fact, I would probably laugh now. I think the challenge becomes figuring out a way to 1) Make whatever activity you’re doing in the classroom relevant for the students (all things we’ve talked about) and 2) Communicating to the students that the skills they are learning will somehow be important in the future. So I suppose the answer to my questions is figuring out the best way to talk to my students without freaking out. I am not so sure about those answers … any suggestions?