Building a Composition Class

I have three Composition II classes this semester, for a total of 5 classes, which is an overload, but there were extenuating circumstances. This however is not a single prep.

Since today is the first day of class, I wanted to share how I build my composition courses. First, a general overview. How composition was modeled for me makes sense to my brain and is good pedagogy, so it's what I use. We have three major writing assignments (MWAs), each a specific genre, and each MWA has two low stakes assignments (LSAs) that are the parts and pieces of the MWA which they get feedback on so ideally by the time the MWA is complete they've gotten feedback and had time to revise with this in mind. I also do a portfolio rather than a final exam which includes a piece that is a major revision, a piece where the genre is revised, brief paragraphs for each where they reflect on changes they made and why, a reflection on the priority student learning outcomes (SLOs) for the department, and a more personal reflection on how they feel about their writing, done as a cover letter to me.

When I built and paced out my syllabi, I put in dates for all these, put in dates for grade conferences, in class workshopping, introduction of mentor texts, and times for mini-lessons (to be determined). What I did not put in were any details about these things. The reason I did not is because I do not choose them. Today, during the beginning of my class, students took 3 Google Form surveys. The first was about them, and covered pronouns, concerns, things they're worried about, skills with documents, that kind of thing. The second was them voting on when they wanted me to be available in my office. The third asked them to choose what we were going to cover in class this semester.
First, they chose the 3 genres that will be our major writing assignments. This class chose argument/position, flyer/webpage, and profile.

Next, they told me the topics they were interested in. I use these to choose the mentor texts we'll use as models.

 Finally, I asked them to self-identify some topics for mini-lessons.

If you've never used Google Forms, it does some really cool things. The first is that it auto creates visuals from the responses. So it was really easy for me to see what they chose. Since research and profiles were tied, I wanted to make sure they did some heavy research lifting for the profile.

Once class was over and I was back in my office I sat down, looked at the responses, and plugged in the MWAs into the syllabus. Then I wrote the bones of the assignments:

Major Writing Assignment 1: Profile

Rhetorical Situation:
You've been asked to write a profile on a famous person for TIME magazine.

LSA #1: Choose who you want to research, and why

LSA#2: Title, outline of topics, where to find the information, citation

MWA #1: Write the profile

Major Writing Assignment 2: Argument/Position

Rhetorical Situation:

You’ve been asked to write an article for WIRED magazine about the ethics of an app.
Argue for or against its ethical application.

LSA #1: Choose the app, annotate the terms of service

LSA#2: Organizer for pro/con

MWA #1: Write the article

Major Writing Assignment 2: Flyer/Infographic/Webpage

Rhetorical Situation:

Choose a topic or issue that is important to you.
Write a specific rhetorical situation (genre, audience, purpose).

LSA #1: Annotate a sample of what you’re creating, write rhetorical situation

LSA#2: Plan out, storyboard

MWA #1: Create the flyer/infographic/webpage

For the last MWA since students had chosen a variety of topics that tied, I wanted to open it up. Also by the end of the semester I want them using the skills they've learned so writing their own rhetorical situations.

As we work on each as a class we will discuss (and I'll write down on class notes, done in Google Slides, and made available to them) the elements each should include. They will use these to create and we will use them as reference during our grade conferences.

Next, I needed to look at the topics and choose mentor texts for each of these genres. As program coordinator, I'm building a document for composition instructors that lays out the genre approach, and supplies resources, so I went to look there first. I put those links to mentor texts into the syllabus.

I've talked about this approach before, and the pushback I've gotten is "I'd love to do this but this is too time intensive." This took me 36 minutes. And the payoffs will be huge. On their exit tickets today the majority of students said they were excited to get started in class. Choice and to a certain extent engagement is already built in. More importantly for me, this is a class culture builder. For their exit tickets I asked for one thing they learned, one question they had, and one thing they wanted me to know.
Some of the things they put under learned:

• In this class I learned we are not writing for the professor
• Writing is more than just writing for the teacher or professor
• Many mentioned the Weapemeoc tribe from my land acknowledgment I opened with as part of my "where are we?" focus
• In each aspect of your life there are genres and a certain jargon used
• I learned that we will focus on different perspectives not just mine and/or the professors

The students also in class did mini discourse community notes- identified four areas of their life and wrote down what each read and wrote, then the specific genres and jargon. Then I asked them to think about the job they had or wanted and what they read and wrote, what genres and jargon was used.
I wrote up the answers to their questions (no attendance policy, no I'm not straight edge) for the first slide we'll go over next class, and learned all kinds of things about them from that last prompt.

My students know that their interests, narratives matter. That they matter, from the first day. This is very important to me. And everything else we do in class enforces this.

I know it can feel scary to give up control in a classroom. I know it seems like this is a lot of work. But the payoffs, the benefits are amazing.

I'm excited today went well, and look forward to meeting the rest of my classes tomorrow.

Setting Up My Office, Setting a Tone

My last couple of years teaching high school I transitioned to grade conferences held in class, dumped teaching the canon, and got rid of my teacher's desk. While these may seem like totally separate events they were all connected, part of active choices on my part to better serve my students. One of the many reasons I was able to do these things was because of the people I follow on Twitter, and the exposure I got from them about better pedagogy and anti-racist teaching.

The last few years I've thought a lot about the power structures that exist in education, how they impact my students, and the harm of replicating innately white power structures does to students. Often in my Twitter feed there are voices and narratives that should be complementing each other but aren't. There are voices about how students learn, that are not interacting with the voices about how poverty, institutional racism, and trauma affect students. Or voices that challenge educators who when reporting on research about how students learn do not acknowledge that this research is how white students learn. I guess I wish all the parts of my Twitter feed spoke to each other. That K-12 teachers were listening to the college professors, that all were listening to and learning from the trauma and anti-racist work being done and shared by excellent folks.

A few months ago as I was sharing my ditch the teacher desk thoughts on Twitter I shared too what getting rid of these structures might look like at the college level. Now that I'll be teaching at the college level, I want to expand some of my thoughts, using the real world example of me setting up my campus office this past week.

So, I had a couple of clear ideas about what I wanted my office to do. I did not want my desk to be the focus. I did not want it (especially this set up) to be how students interacted with me. I did not want a desk between us, representing a power discrepancy.

So, I asked my department chair for a table, and he graciously wandered rooms with me until we found a surplus table that would work. The table is against a blank wall that I really want to make a student contribution collage thingey. It is also against a wall with multiple outlets so students can plug in laptops/phones as needed. When you open the door, this is what you see:

The conference table has pens, markers, Post-Its, paper, stapler, tape. On the wall to the right is a 4' white board that I bought and my favorite poster, Map of Manuscript Earth. I want this to be a working space, a space where students and I can collaborate and work through things together.

On the other side of the office is  my desk and shelves. There is a filing cabinet, which frankly I'm just dumping stuff in because I don't really deal with paper. The shelves are mostly empty. I think I want to have a "want one take one" reading shelf, of just cool books. On top is a board game of Miltonopoly a student made as a final project and my Paradise Lost poster. My sweatshirt has funny ducks on it. The shelf above my desk has Archie McPhee toys. On the bottom shelf are several crates- tissues with motivational sayings, granola bars, rubber ducks. I brought in my old printer, copier, scanner, because this is invaluable for lots of reasons. I am lucky to enjoy and be able to work from my home office. I don't go to coffee shops or need to go anywhere else for quiet. But I know too that I'll be spending a lot of time in my office, so I wanted my desk space to be somewhere I could work. One of the first things I did was rerun the computer cables so they were neat, and everything was in a good working space.

I have  deck of cards, and Othello in my office. This is new. I'm hoping that students who are maybe nervous about seeing a professor, for class or advising, could play and talk. We'll see. Othello is a cool ass game regardless. I have my apple cinnamon plug in just like I always had in my classroom. Students always commented on how nice my room smelled.
In the past negative comments on evaluations have included "she teaches like she's in high school." And this is valid- I scaffold more, I'm more aware of pedagogy, I am transparent in why we do the things we do. My thought process for my office was very much informed by my time teaching high school. I think these things are important.

I opened the blinds, one because I love the view and natural sunlight, but too, I like how it opens the space which is a really nice, big space already.

I tinkered with comics to put on my door, and decided to play a bit with the posting office hours and class schedule bit.

I used Google Slides because it's easier to move things around in it. Especially because I'm new, I wanted to do more than just post hours.

I'm hoping that all of these things together set a specific tone. One that is welcoming to students, comfortable. A space that breaks down some power dynamics. That values students. That gives them a space. That too, lets people know the kind of teacher I am.

For me, these conscious decisions are an extension of my classes which ask the students to see where they are in what we study. That asks them to use their own interests to explore our subject matter. That builds things with them. They're also an extension of things like not policing behavior, accommodating all students, and making my course and content accessible for all.

There will be a lot of new things this year, and a steep learning curve. Frankly, setting up my office was the last recognizable thing I've done. I don't know what it's going to be like to be a professor- what the day to day routine will be like, service, committees, advising. I know how to create a syllabus, choose readings, set up a space, but past that? Whole new, unfamiliar world. So I don't know what this semester or year will be like but I am grateful for all the lessons I've learned the last few years that make me feel secure in the kind of teacher I want to be, and how I want my students to feel.

I guess I'll figure the rest out.

Things That I'm Trying This Year

I'm trying several new and newish things this fall in my classroom, some that I've been thinking about for a while and some that I did a version or approach-like in my high school classroom that I've revised and rethought for a college classroom.

These adaptations and changes came out of several conversations I've listened to and read about the last couple of years.

• Grades. I want students to learn for the sake of learning. I want their learning to be based on their own interests. I want them to learn from the process, from feedback. Because I will be teaching comp and the early English survey and Shakespeare, I want the effort students put in to be enough to pass them. This last year I fell in love with grade conferences, so I'm continuing those. Below are the grade breakdowns for Comp and then my survey and Shax classes.

• Student Choice and Student Directed. In my survey (syllabus here) and Shax classes (syllabus here) students choose their own interests and use those as the basis for their larger assignments. I've done this in the past and especially with the final paper/project (or UnEssays) I've gotten great results. I try to use both classes to challenge why we study these things, explain how a lot of what we study is careful curation by white men hundreds of years later, and a lot is about sheer luck of what manuscripts survive. I ask the students to consider how they identify and how these identities are seen, or not, in what we study and what the reasons for that are. I also ask them to think of their research choices as ways to fill those gaps. For my composition courses though I wanted to try something different.
• The first week, my students will take this survey that asks them to choose the topics and genres we'll study.

• Now, I've roughed out the syllabus already. There are three major writing assignments, each will be one of the genres students choose. Each MWA has two low stakes assignments that are the parts and pieces of that MWA. So, for example, let's say the students choose a rhetorical analysis for one of their MWAs.
• LSA 1 would be to find an ad, or video, or text they want to analyze the rhetoric of. The assignment would be to print it out or provide a copy, and for them to annotate it for rhetoric.
• LSA 2 then might be them creating a draft of a poster or ad and annotating it for the rhetoric they want to make.
• Their MWA would then be to create the item.
• For this first assignment I'd give them the rhetorical situation. Something like, you've been asked by the university to create a text for a new campaign designed to get more local students to attend college. Find a model that you think has aspects you will use in your own text to sell the idea to your boss, then draft and create the text for consideration.

• I've been asked about logistics and work with this. So, here's the thing- I've taught all of these genres, so it's pretty each that first weekend to plug in what the LSAs should be based on the MWAs the students choose. Then I use their interests to choose mentor texts that are along those interests. It's pretty easy to Google profile, movie star so that's an easy hyperlink. It's not actually any more work than building the syllabus in the first place, and the choice, the input, means students are heard, and more likely to be engaged. Will everyone get their choice? No, but it's as fair as I can get. The Google Form for survey means it's easy to read the pie chart to see what genres and topics to plug in.
• I use the same type of Google Form to ask students when they'd like me to be available. I look at what my teaching schedule is, consider my personal limitations (Nehi), and then plug in times. I also added Skype as an option, and email, trying to get a feel for how students prefer to communicate.
• Because I teach composition by focusing on genre, getting students to see how tone, audience, and purpose dictate form and content and style, I like to have students do a creative writing activity the first week. I have found that while students may struggle with how genre and TAP work in abstract, they have no problem doing the work in this type of activity. It also lays the ground work for MWA 2 and 3 where we'll work towards them writing and designing their rhetorical situations.

Now, this is how I was taught to teach composition, and I continue to use it because I've seen it work. If you look at the schedule, there's not a lot of filler, and there are repeated patterns. So we always start with a mentor text, in class we'll discuss what genre it is, who the audience is, how we can tell, same with purpose, and we'll talk about what elements that genre does/should include. Students will then use that model for their own work. We have a workshop day for every assignment, so they can work in class when I and classmates are there to help, listen, peer edit. Then we grade conference in class. During these I usually give guiding questions and display the genre elements. I then ask what grade they think the assignment should get and why. If I they say A+ and I disagree, that's where the elements come in, and we revisit the mentor text. I will ask, okay, but this is an X, so it should have Y, can you show me where that is?

In my experience, with the first assignment and conference, students tend to grade their work as all As since they get to choose, but as we talk through it, most will see their work realistically and be real honest. And if someone still argues for an A? I don't care. 

So those are my main focuses for this semester. I'd like in the composition class to introduce writer's notebooks/daybooks, but honestly, even though I can't live without mine, I've never been able to get it to work in a classroom. I do share mine as a model of how they can stay organized, but I've never been able to formalize it. And while I have lots of examples and ideas about using the similar idea with commonplace books in the survey and Shax classes, this first semester with so much new, I didn't want to spread myself too thin with new stuff. I wanted to focus on the students.

One thing too I wanted to point out- you'll notice that my syllabuses (syllabi? I still don't know which is right, but Twitter will revive this battle the next few weeks) is that they are totally focused on the content. Kevin Gannon has a great post about how he did not become a professor to police behavior (by the way, if you Google Kevin Gannon, police behavior it tells you all about a serial killer studying detective, use my link). This post really changed how I thought about my classroom, both in the documents I gave students AND my whole perspective IN the classroom. It enabled me to let go of being bothered by things. And it has been phenomenal.

As a result of this, my syllabus and course policies and guidelines are separate. I go over the syllabus in class, because I focus on the content, but I do not go over the policies and guidelines. They are a reference, they are necessary, the information is important, but it is not what my classes are about. I link to them at the bottom of all syllabi, because the policies don't change in classes. 

Also, all of my syllabi are live Google Docs, and I tell students that, so they know not to print them. I hyperlink resources and lecture notes as we go. I lean towards open access materials for equity and accessibility, but also warn students about this as some/many may only have internet access on campus. I recommend Dover editions where I can, or provide the links. I am not a fan of super expensive books, and usually email students the syllabus with required books on it weeks before class to accommodate buying the used book on Amazon that takes 3-4 weeks to get here. This year I can't because I don't have institutional email/Blackboard access yet, but none of my classes require that (survey uses Norton, Shakespeare they use any, and Composition has a required textbook, all of which are included in their tuition? Which I don't quite get how that works yet).

I tend to lesson plan on Sundays, and will create a lecture notes Google Slide for each class, that students have access to. I have seen the cool syllabi that are brochures and such, but I am not convinced those are totally accessible, so I don't use them. I have in some composition classes had as a first assignment for students to create a one pager from the syllabus, that helps them research it, and helps me see what resonates and what doesn't.

So that's how I design my classes.

I will tell you that I roughed out the survey and Shakespeare classes months ago, and then have been tinkering. With the survey I cut a lot of stuff because I want to focus on the texts we are covering. With the Shakespeare class I revised it because I wanted the pattern to be- intro idea, discuss in concrete and real world ways, then spend a week discussing comprehension THEN analysis of play, then do same with a scholarly article for that play. Since this is the only Shakespeare class, I wanted to balance exposure to big ideas with coverage, that was also tailored to my students at an HBCU.

Welcome To...

Last week I moved me and Nehi 1,951 miles across the country, into a house I bought unseen other than through the Interwebz.

It surprised no one that my boxes were color-coded and marked with what the contents were and what room they belonged in or that there were multiple coordinating color-coded lists for each step of the move. Most people were speechless if not down-right horrified that I would buy a house unseen. I tried to explain that it was actually pretty easy. I know exactly what my and Nehi's daily life requires- a quiet neighborhood where it is safe to walk. A fenced yard for her. A bedroom. An office. Light. Green. Our house has all these things. So I knew it would fit us just fine. It is a 1956 brick bungalow in a neighborhood full of them. I heard a lot in the last month that it was a "starter house" and I shouldn't change anything drastically because I'd have an issue reselling it. I'm listening to any of that because it's my home now, and I'm going to make it what I want, and honestly, I don't plan on going anywhere. Someone else told me I could easily add another bathroom. Why? I only need the one. It's a Goldilocks's house for us.

I have a friend who delights in turning up the corners of rugs in my house just to watch me leap to turn it back down. Despite my tendencies, I'm pretty chill with a lot of house things. Given the age, this house will keep me busy with honey-do chores for a while, which I like, but honestly, the only thing that needed immediate attention was the kitchen.

Other than feeling a bit claustrophobic, it's also dated, and laid out really badly. So I made an appointment to get an estimate to pull down the cabinets and replace with farm shelves and cut off the end of the left hand side cabinet/counter to put the fridge there. The rest was cosmetic, paint the lower cabinets I was keeping. Once everything is pulled down, paint the upper wall. I decided too to replace the hardware, something farmhouse-y but not this...

I went with this, a darker brass that I think complemented the updated farmhouse look I want it to have.

Despite how organized, anxious, and color-coded fussy I am with so many things (read: almost everything) it's always interesting to me how NOT so I am with house stuff. In the last week I've painted the living room, office, bedroom, and lower kitchen. I have the bathroom left to do, and honestly I've been putting it off for days because I hate painting. The bottom molding has color splashed on it in the living room and office because honestly until day two I forgot the tip of using a piece of cardboard as a runner guard. The ceiling has some spots too. Meh. IF I get the energy those are a fall-winter weekend fix. If I don't I honestly don't care.
I dinged the guest room floor putting together the spare bed yesterday. Meh.
I got blue paint on the deck from redoing the cabinets and drawers. Meh again.
The two kitchen cabinets I redid hang a bit off AND the handles are not level.

I am not a careless person, or an uncaring one, but my day to day life, my home environment, it's as though it's the one time and place where the atmosphere to me is more important than the exactness. I'm focused on how happy and open the kitchen looks not the uneven handles. I'm enjoying the calm grey-blue of my bedroom. The light on the sandstone walls in the living room. The soft rug.

Maybe part of this is too because this is all mine, it's my house, and I can do whatever I want. The only other house I ever owned I bought for Mom, painted for Mom, designed for Mom. I did not like it, I did not like the space or neighborhood, although I tried to make the best of it. This place is just mine and Nehi's. It's five minutes to the store. I can walk to my doctor's and it's ten minutes from work.

I have over a month til I report to my new job, and the POD comes Monday with movers unloading Tuesday. I've gotten done everything I needed and wanted to before the furniture and boxes are here (except the damn bathroom).
Other than painting, I've rigged a fix for the whole in the fence and put together furniture. I've also replaced my shower head.

Unsurprisingly the last week I've thought a lot about tools, which was I started to write this blog about. I don't have a lot of tools, and over the years I've had to replace some. The first day I moved into my rental in Albuquerque, someone stole my Dewalt drill right out of my truck! I went immediately to replace it. Over the years I've learned that there are some essential tools I can do just about everything with.

•  A drill, battery powered, because what you lack in power (which you rarely need in house stuff) you will more than love for the mobility.
• Drill bits. I'm pretty sure these are not in the correct spot. And I break pilot bits like I'm gonna win an award. But they're super handy.

My bag is a holdover from when I was a master electrician and worked freelance in Atlanta, having to lug it around on MARTA to jobs (that sucked by the way) but made for a good pillow for in between call naps. The bag holds:

•  A staple gun
• Screwdrivers of various sizes with Philip's heads marked with comic tape.
• Gloves
• Painter's tape
• wire cutters
• Vise grips
• Hammer
• zip ties
• Molecular tape (one of the coolest things ever invented)
• The painting sheet is usually in there
• A jar of screws
• A tupperware of sandpaper and misc. hardware
• A tupperware of drill accessories
• A C-wrench with tie lie on it
• A measuring tape
• A chalk line

 
I also have a jigsaw drill. A hatchet. A long extension cord. Sharpies. And with these supplies I can do most things. The furniture I put together this week had the graphic "lift with a buddy" on it. In my head, I kept hearing "Well what if there IS no buddy? There wasn't one today..." in Bill Murray's voice.

Everything is harder when you're on your own. Bathroom breaks were non-existent on the drive out because Nehi couldn't be left in a hot car. I ate fast food take out because Nehi couldn't be left in a hot car. I carried furniture boxes into the house on my own, and fending off Nehi being helpful trying to see, boxes that clearly said "requires two people to lift."

There was no one to help clean the new house, run out for groceries while I stayed home with Nehi, hold the cabinets while I screwed in new hinges. That's okay, I've gotten good and balancing and holding weight with my feet.

I am proud of the work I've done. I'm proud that I've done it without any help. I was telling my godmother the other day about all the moving stuff and she said "you keep saying 'we,' did so-and-so come up to help you?" And I laughed, and laughed, because of course not, and because when I say we I mean me and Nehi.

So that's been our last week. I'll be happy when the furniture gets here, as 43 is too old to sleep on hardwood floors. I have a special book to put all my house "to do" stuff in. I'm enjoying the green. I'm glad I have a month still to get all settled before starting my new job, and glad this will feel like home when I do.

I'm really excited about this move, this new start. And Nehi is glad I finally came through on my promise the last six years to get her a yard with grass.
She's defending it daily.

Last three weeks of school

It is easy to coast the last few weeks of school. Especially if, like so many of us, those last weeks include state testing. The students are exhausted, as are we, drained, and it's easy to do what is easy, to sit at our desks and just coast, hoping no one notices until we're at the last day.

I decided to actively fight this and instead focus on reflecting on what I tried this year, start planning for how to refine it next year, and use these last weeks to experiment a bit.

@callmemrmorris has blogged about getting rid of his teacher's desk, and I've seen others share similar stories. It got put on the list of things I'd like to try but kept getting put on the back burner. Then the last couple of weeks I found myself sitting at my desk a LOT. Not moving around, not sitting with students, not monitoring, just tired, and sitting. It's been a long year, frankly they all are, and teachers this time of year are exhausted.

So I rearranged my classroom (AGAIN?!? Doc my students exclaim as they walked in) and got rid of my teacher desk.
Kinda.
So, the computer hooked up to the projector is in the front of the room, and I project my lessons which de facto makes the front a focus. BUT we do station rotations, so it's there as reference not a lecture focus. My class is divided into three groups of seating, and I've tried to get more tables than desks. I've tweaked these groups/rotations throughout the year, but here's what I ended up with that I think works best:

1. a group that works with me on mini-lessons. Sometimes this is their mentor text. Sometimes it's looking at something in their own books. This is often a teacher led station, or at least one where I hover more often.
2. a group for projects. This is near/at the computers so students can build, actively work, look up stuff.
3. a group for them. This is the station that's new-ish and what I most want to refine for next year. It's near the white boards that run the whole room and what I want it to be is a place where they talk, work stuff out. It has been independent work on whatever we're focusing on that day, but I really want it to be more active than passive.

Now, I do have a podium up front, for taking attendance, entering in the computer. Where handouts for week get stashed. BUT, I noticed even with this, not having a desk meant today in class, I took my stack of grading, and as students worked on their exploring Japanese mythology worksheet I sat with one group, then another, then another throughout the period.
This proximity meant they were all on task as they worked. It means I talked to one group about why a student was suspended. It meant they stopped texting and worked as I sat down. It made a huge difference.

Now, I know that not everyone feels comfortable with this. That's fine. But more and more I find in my practice that I am questioning the assumptions of teaching.
We assign homework- why? We know it punishes students from certain backgrounds and is classist.
We assume students have computer/technology access.
Teachers must have desks.
Students must be compliant which is not the same as learning.

Many of these structures serve to reinforce power dynamics and have nothing to do with learning. When I first became a teacher a mentor said, "Be sure your decisions are always based on what is best for the students not on what is easiest for you" and I have made this a guiding principle. I get that precarious faculty and higher ed will argue against this since much of this work is unpaid, and I have no good answers to a broken system that functions and moves along through free labor.

More and more, below is my guiding principle. And if I don't have a good answer then I need to not be doing that in my classroom.



With just a few weeks left, I've also started thinking about next year. I saw a neat idea I want to try that I think will help my students.
This year I taught English 9 with each of our 6 markings periods dedicated to a genre- so personal narratives, non-fiction, short story, novel, drama, myths/epics. Next year, I'm going to refine this so fall semester focuses on narrative, and spring semester on informative and argumentative. I am still going to focus on a single writing assignment and project each marking period but have tweaked those some. Also, each marking period, students within those broad genre guidelines, will choose the specific genres to study and the theme focus.
Here's the rough scope and sequence. 

I really liked the station rotations, and will continue with them. Students said they liked when we did all three things but moved through them whole group, said they didn't feel as rushed. I am going to try and address this, but what they can't see with the station rotations is how it frees me up for one on one time which I think is invaluable.
I love the mentor texts, but this was my first year using them and I want to be more mindful of how I use them next year. I also want to make sure I'm centering them more, returning to them as models and for mini-lessons.
I also loved the 25 minutes of independent reading every day to start class. The students read so much, and were totally engaged. I have my extended social media network to thank for helping me provide all these great books, and groups like Project Lit and We Need Diverse Books for providing the titles. I modeled reading, and got to read so many great things. Also, First Book Marketplace was a great resource for books priced so I could afford them. The last week of school I'm going to let students take home a book for the summer.  My department has also agreed to let students read whatever they want over the summer which is a HUGE win considering the last few years has been a battle of packets for summer reading and required texts.
The grading contracts, and the approach of students telling me what grades things deserve and why was also a radical change. Next year I will continue this but am doubling down. I've usually set up my gradebook so interactive notebook, writing, projects, and tests were all 25% with the idea that some students are better at some things over others and no one thing should tank their grade. Next year I'm making class activities 75% of their grade and summative assessments (projects, tests, final drafts of essays) 25% of their grade. So come to class and participate in the practice and get a C, guaranteed. Then the demonstration of mastery is 25%. I'm excited to try this out.

In general the texts I've taught are totally different. I pretty much threw out the canon and taught engaging, high interest texts with a focus on representation and dealing with the issues and themes of racism and social justice. I am indebted to Valerie Brown and her #ClearTheAir work in this. It literally changed how I taught and what I taught and as I've said elsewhere, all of these changes listed here but especially this one resulted in the best teaching year ever, and certainly the one where I have served my students best.

So I know the last weeks can be hard, and exhausting. But I have found that reflecting on the year, planning for new things for next year, and experimenting with the time I have left, has made me energized, and reinvigorated for the work I do.
And really, the last few weeks are a perfect time to try new things. Your students know you, hopefully they trust you, so it's a great environment to try new things and see what happens.

What Grad School Doesn't Teach You

I once took a class that was an intro to the field for English. It was a foundational class for me. We had to join a list-serv, analyze conversations in the field, create an abstract for a conference, then a paper. This was 10 years ago now, but it became the class I measured other grad classes against.

If I was going to create an Intro to English Studies class now, or any graduate class, I would aim to fill some of the gaps I see in what grad students are taught:

• Join the lis-servs in your field
• This is a great way to learn the people in your field (for good and ill) and conversations in the field
• Join Twitter
• Does the same thing but more up to date, skews younger
• Assignments would include:
• Abstract for a conference that you'd submit
• Conference paper you'd present to class 
• Turning conference paper into a journal article, submitting it
• I'd work with you on it until it was accepted
• Students should also take a class on cultural responsiveness that teaches them how to be anti-racist in practice and research as well as how to best serve their students. These approaches should also be built into content classes.

Other things that grad school doesn't teach you, and really should, in a class you take the semester you graduate:

• How to write a book proposal
• How to submit it, shop it around
• Key ways to approach your first monograph
• How it differs from diss
• How to use/read reviewer notes
• Differences/choices between monographs, edited collections, articles, how to prioritize them

Also, as part of a job market prep class that should be the semester before students go on the market:

• The economics of a university/college job
• Awareness
• Also, how engagement and enrollment is key, and how you'll be expected to contribute
• How higher ed has changed especially the last few decades and what this practically means for you as a professor
• Differences in fit
•  R1, SLAC, CC, HBCUs
• What this life really looks like, expectations, tenure, lecturer, precarious
• What you can and cannot negotiate

Somewhere in the first year, maybe as part of the Intro to the Field course, grad students should be introduced to the idea of service, presented with options of the kinds of service they could do, opportunities in the department, and uni. In general, grad students do very little that we'd consider service, yet every job interview will ask you what service you'll do at the department and college level. 

These are all pretty easy moves, changes, that grad programs could make and would make a huge difference.

In addition to all of this, I think all programs need to post up to date data on percentage of students who finish/graduate, what they do after graduation, how long those moves take them, and partnerships department/uni has with alt-ac places. Students need to be aware of just how horrible the market is before they take on tens of thousands of debt. I'm still in disbelief that at a dinner a few months ago two grad students graduating in May, were totally and completely unaware of the numbers and reality of the job market. This is a systematic failure.

Small Moves and Structural Issues

I've been thinking a lot about the huge structural issues that face us in education
Especially this year, as I started it with a group of other teachers being told to to brainstorm ideas outside of the box to fix issues. Then we did, and we're told, oh now we can't do that because of x, y, and z BS.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

My students struggle with the fact that the Castilian Spanish they're taught isn't the Mexican based Spanish they speak. They are made to feel less than because of this.
They struggle with math. Why do they need geometry? Algebra II? Pre-calc? Calculus? If they don't want to be mathematicians or engineers or scientists, why are we setting them up to fail? What if instead they could take coding? Financial literacy? Statistics?
Why do they take biology then chemistry then physics?

I think in many schools the structure, the "we've always done it this way" habits ride slipshod over asking pedagogical questions.

Why do we start high school at 7 or 730 when research tells us this is an awful idea? In most school systems it's because of athletics- games have to be at a certain time, so school days are programmed backwards.

Why do we continue to have bells? Teach classes in a certain order? Teach certain classes at all?

How often do schools, districts, stop to ask- why are we doing this? Where are we? Where do we want to be? What best serves our students?
Not in a lip service way, set within canned curriculums and narrow definitions, but in a real, enact true change way?

A common ask on social media is, "I'm looking for something to engage my English 9 students, what can you recommend?"

I used to answer these prompts with questions-
Who are your students?
What do they like?
Where do you teach?

There is no one size fits all to these questions. There is no one best practice, one good lesson, one great book choice.

I no longer answer these prompts, and fair or not, cringe when I see them, and the inevitable answers that follow.

It seems to encapsulate a lot of what I think is wrong with education these days. If you want to know what will engage your students ASK them. Ask them what they like, don't like, and what they want to study, trust me, they'll tell you. If you're not sure if they'll like a book, bring in copies of choices, give book talks, and see what they think.

Certainly I think it's important to stay up to date on the conversations about representation, windows/mirrors/sliding doors, and accurate history when choosing texts. But while these conversations are invaluable for shaping your thinking, the onus is still on you to make informed decisions. You can read how to disrupt Romeo and Juliet, find ideas on how to teach it in a way relevant to your students, but no one else is facing YOUR students every day. They don't know what will trigger Student A in your first period, or confuse Student B in fifth period. You are the one standing in front of them, so only you can make those choices.

Likewise, I don't understand how teachers can teach the same thing year after year. You don't have the same students, with the same backgrounds, same interests, so how are you teaching the same content, the same lessons, the same assignments? And then complaining they aren't engaged?

To me these snippets are evidence of the larger issues in education, that not all teachers are tailoring teaching to the students right in front of them.

Yes, there are skills each teacher, department, school, needs to prioritize. Things students should know. How to evaluate sources. How to support a claim with evidence. How to read and respond to a text. But none of those skills can't be taught with THUG rather than To Kill a Mockingbird. Ask your students what they think they're good at, what they struggle with. Design pre-assessments so you can SEE what concepts and skills your students already know, what you can skip, what you need to spend time on.

Check in with your students, over and over and over again. Why were they able to identify the theme of last week's story but struggle this week with the poem? Be explicit with them on why you're doing or trying certain things then ask for their feedback.

I'm not saying you have to stun the world with original ideas that remake the universe. The best teachers recycle ideas from others and make it their own. But when I use something in my class it's because I've decided it is what is best for MY students. It's the difference between deciding my students need a graphic organizer to help them see their essay plan and Googling for one that will work, and buying an entire writing unit off Teachers Pay Teachers.

I the think the least we can give our students is an education within the walls of our classroom that is designed for them. We may not be able to redesign the entire institution of education (although I've yet to hear a good reason why not) but we can at least do this, we can ask ourselves every day, with every resources, every text, every assignment- what is my pedagogical reason for doing this?