Setting Goals in Groups: Worthwhile or Waste of Time?

So I think I'm finding that we can encourage students to set goals all we want, but maybe it doesn't really matter. Two recent things have made me think this might be true.

Here's the first:
Today, I asked this year's 8th graders to set a class goal for achievement on the upcoming state tests. I showed them their group performance last year, and then I showed them last year 8th graders' overall group performance. All of this information is available to the world online.

My thinking was that if they set a goal as a group, their accountability to each other might spur on individual improvements in the pressure-filled 8th grade tests.

Then I turned it over to them: "What should our group goal be?"

Cue the audio of a long range missile descending loudly and then exploding.

Total waste of time.

About half the class cared enough to share ideas and vote and listen to one another. About six of them only wanted to be able to have their own conversations about things unrelated to tests, goal setting, or the like. Several of them didn't get involved at all. I dropped out of trying to lead the discussion and left it up to them. It went no further.

Group goal setting as a tool for improving achievement in our American education system?

Good luck.

I passed out the practice test packets and over half the class suddenly had to go to the bathroom.

Go figure.

Here's the second thing:
Maybe I'm getting worried over nothing. Maybe my students already saw this TED lecture , and they were just keeping their goals to themselves as a means to actually achieving them. Riiiight.

So what do you think? Should I bother with this? What does everyone else do out there to get students in the mindset of showing their best abilities on these tests?

High stakes tests...friend or foe? Goal setting for high stakes tests? Like them or not, they are a very real part of student data gathering, teacher evaluation, and school performance assessment. What's a teacher to do?

I welcome a conversation on these questions or if anyone knows how to help 8th graders carry on group discussions in a civilized manner (just please, please, please, don't suggest the "talking ball").

Once We Hook a Reader, Can it Last?

I took my sixth graders to our school library to browse for books for independent reading. They know the expectation is to have a new book ready before they finish their current choice so that we keep up the habit and continue to build reading stamina. And besides are Readers ever without their next books?

As they beelined for the graphic novel section and scrambled to the librarian's desk to request new books in their beloved series, I took a look around.

It just so happened that when we dropped into the LMC today, the sophomore class was browsing for books for their independent book project. I had been their middle school reading teacher and their reading lists and accomplishments came back to me as sure as their faces and names.

Scary.

But then it hit me. They weren't browsing as Readers. They were browsing because they had to for class. Many of them were guffawing and chuckling over their chosen books being "short enough" or something they "already read"...in middle school!

I remarked to two gentleman as they ducked out the door that The Last Apprentice series was extremely popular with this year's sixth graders. It didn't phase them.

So...what do I gather from this chance glimpse into my former students' present reading lives?

1. I must have failed in my mission to help them become lifelong Readers.


2. It's still not cool to be a Reader in our school--the social climate, at least in the high school, doesn't support this.


3. Nancie Atwell's confession about her reaction to the observable decline in reading from middle school to high school in her former students was spot-on as she shared in The Reading Zone (Scholastic, 2007):
   

Now, when I run into them, I've learned not to ask, "So, what are you reading?" Not the girl who read 124 books during eighth grade. Not the boy who read every dystopian science-fiction novel I could lay hands on, from The House of the Scorpion and After, to Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange, 1984, and The Handmaid's Tale. Not his friend who enrolled in CTL at age twelve, never having chosen or read a novel on his own, who graduated with sixty-four titles he loved under his belt. I don't ask them because most of the time I already know the answer, and it kills me: "Nothing..." (106-107)

Just because I can get them reading and thinking of themselves as Readers between the ages of 11 and 14 there's no insurance this will stick. I must confess that my reading teacher heart is a little broken about this.

If reading ability, and I would argue interest, is one of the number one predictors of academic success, what should we do about this trend in reading decline that hits once students walk through our high school doors?

Should this even be on my list of things to worry about?

Can somebody out there (maybe) confirm that sometimes reading lives just go on hiatus during the high school years, only to return in robust form at some future point in peoples' lives?

I know it's wishful thinking, but for this girl, contemplating periods in one's life without great books makes me begin to wheeze, break out in hives, and want to climb the walls.

What makes Readers and non-readers so different?

Cooking for Change

I was very proud to be a staff advisor for our team of five talented young women who developed a lunch menu for competition at the 2nd Annual Harvest Challenge.

We've been working with the ever-generous Madame Monique Hooker to hone our knife skills, acquire kitchen prep techniques, and grow our overall awareness of how to use fresh food. We've been having a great time along the way. Most of the food in our meal came from our school's FFA garden, thereby keeping things local as much as possible.

Tonight the ladies served tasting portions to around 200 people at the event after presenting their work to a panel of judges. It was an exhausting process, but filled with camaraderie and opportunities to learn and problem-solve.

Our side dish of roasted butternut squash highlighted by a touch of honey was a crowd favorite, and it won the honor of Best Side.

We are grateful for all the support we received from parents, staff, school board members, and community friends, and we can't wait for next year's competition! The energy, enthusiasm, and teamwork evident at the event tonight was very inspiring.

This event is a perfect example of why it's great to work in our district. Opportunities like this one present themselves all the time, especially when you're in the middle of many other commitments. I'm so glad that I was involved with this project and that I had the opportunity to work with great people.

The next challenge: serving our menu to the entire school!

The Lion Drop

Mr. Yet-to-be-Officially-Named atop the blogger's father's truck, awaiting his Homecoming Parade Debut.

Last week was Homecoming week here in our little district, and that has big meaning here in football country.

In my middle school reading classroom however, it was pretty much business as usual aside from the wacky dress up days and trying to keep track of whatever odd schedule was running for different activities...nothing I can't handle after seven years in the district.

Crazy Pirate dress up days gone terribly bad?

Do these people really work for the district?

But in the middle of the week, in the middle of teaching seventh graders how to begin blogging, a friend dropped by and delivered the largest stuffed animal lion I've ever seen. I mean, it's the kind of plush toy kids ogle at F.A.O. Schwarz at Christmastime, sized so that it takes at least 3 people to haul him anywhere.

Now I should back up and tell you that I am the Leo Club advisor, a junior group to the community-service oriented Lions Club. And we were in desperate need of a cool float in time for the Homecoming Parade. So those two points help the lion-drop story make a little more sense.

However, there's a little issue about where to store the beast. Put that problem to a bunch of middle school students, and they of course cry, "Keep him here! Let him stay!"

So, he's staying. The giant feline is now permanently installed atop a tall cabinet in my room, and we've moved on to the challenge of finding him a suitable name. I've already propped up a book in between his massive paws, because it's common knowledge that if you're going to stay in my classroom for any length of time, you'd better pick up a book at some point. Jerry Pinkney's The Lion and the Mouse seemed like a good idea.

He's grown on me. I appreciate the way he changes the space in the classroom into something different. My students love him. And he did a good job for us in the parade from the top of my dad's truck: I've received more requests to join the Leo Club than ever before. There is also a lot of good natured arguing about his name. All the obvious ones like Leo and Simba have been shot down, but there's an influential group of readers advocating for Aslan. We'll see. I think there's a club fundraiser hiding in his naming rites somewhere.

My seventh graders may try to tell you some far-fetched story about a very one-sided argument I may have had with him.

I guess if you're going to be interrupted during class, a lion-drop is the way to go.

Check back here soon to find out about his official name and the adventures of this year's Leos.