Using The Farmer and the Snake in the Classroom

Ms. Cardwell

It is no secret that my new students are quite different from those that I have taught in the past.  For the most part, they are wealthy and white-and I have a significant number of international students.  Consequently, I have been forced ot rethink what I teach and how I teach it.   I love my new kids,  but they are not ready for The Bluest Eye!

The reason why we read literature is to gain more insight into our own lives, and to learn about the lives of others.  To that end, I have used my short story unit to expose my students to  writers from different cultural backgrounds. The following is a series of lessons that I did over a period of about a week before the Thanksgiving Break.  Because of the themes of food, family, and culture, these are great activities to do when students return from Thanksgiving Break or before they leave for Winter Break.  It is suitable for students in 6-12th grade.

Photo: childrenslit.com

1.  As a class we read Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan.  As we go through the story, the students fill  out a chart identifying literary elements like the one below.  I used this story to introduce the idea of diversity and to discuss different approaches to dealing with difference.

This chart was conceptualized by me, but created by Sophie, a 6th grader!

2. Students read Real Food by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie independently  (we previously watched Adichie's Ted Talk "The Danger of the Single Story" when discussing the Ebola health crisis, so students were aware of Adichie's work).

Photo: Liberator Magazine

3.  After reading and discussing the story, students complete two of the following mini-investigations:

•  Make a list of all of the Nigerian foods mentioned in the text (with their primary ingredients).  Make a collage of these foods with a brief description of each of them. 
• Make a Venn diagram comparing the themes of “Real Food” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to the themes of “Fish Lips” by Amy Tan.
• Research the various ethnic groups in Nigeria and create a pie-chart displaying their representation in the Nigerian population.  (What percentage of the population belongs to each ethnic group?)
• Label a map with pictures of the most popular foods in Nigeria, United Kingdom, France, and The United States.
• Go to https://newsela.com and find an article about the Nigerian economy.  Summarize the main ideas of the article.
• Go to https://newsela.com and find an article about Boko Haram.  Create a Haiku Deck to share with the class.  Make sure to describe the group and include their current activities in Nigeria.

4.  Students read this essay by former Storefront student Brittney Nelson.  Several of my 6th graders were moved to tears.

5.  Students write their own personal narratives with food as a motif.  I had students write about everything from recipes for pumpkin flowers to a grandmother's Brazilian stew.

I Flew All the Way to Chicago and Didn't Even Get to See Oprah

The other day I saw an article on Facebook about a teacher who followed his students' schedule for a day, and ended up exhausted from sheer boredom.  While, I haven’t lived the life of a 6^th grader yet, I have participated in a lot of professional development recently . . .

Photo: parentmap.com

Over the past year, I have heard the following words and phrases more than I care to remember:

Portfolio, Formative Assessment, Summative Assessment, Scope and Sequence, One-to-One, PLC, Understanding by Design, IB, MYP, PYP, Data Driven Instruction, Digital Citizenship, Approaches to Learning, Design Thinking, Authentic Assessment, Backwards Planning, etc., etc.  My educational fatigue is so deep that even hearing the word “unit” gives me a physical reaction that includes lots of anxiety, eye rolling and sighing. 

Photo: Concordiaonline.net

My recent professional development has given me greater insight into what my students experience on a daily basis.  And since I like to turn lemons into lemon drop shots; here are some thoughts on WHAT NOT TO DO in the classroom.  

1.    Forget to make your agenda, purpose, and timeline clear.  There’s nothing worse than feeling like your time is being wasted, and this sentiment applies to little people too.  I make a point of asking my students “What’s the point?” or  "why are we doing this?” several times during my classes.  I vow to plan engaging and meaningful lessons that make that happen more often.

2.     Expect students to sit still in the same place all day.  I have been in Chicago at  a conference for the past three days, and I have not been outside of the (very nice)  hotel once.  During one session, I saw a grown woman so bored that she began rocking back and forth in her chair like Gillian in the last season of Boardwalk Empire.  When I get back to work I’m going to make more of an effort to get my students out of the school, and at the very least out of their seats.  I learned that even changing where I am standing when I teach can shift the energy in the room. There is no better feeling than ending a class and hearing a student say "is it over already?" or "can we stay?"

This is not how one should feel during professional development . . .

3.   Rely too much on the human voice as the means of communicating information.  As riveting as I think I am, I am going to allow my students more time to run discussions, work independently and make decisions about how to use their own time.  If I want them to become active learners who use school as an opportunity to discover and develop their passions, I have to loosen the reigns. 

4.    Fail to recognize when you have lost your audience.  I am ashamed to admit this, but for the past three days I have been behaving like an eleven year old child with ADHD.  I have texted, opened report cards, edited a unit, and worked on this blog post all while sitting right in front of the facilitator of my session.  I have waited until a session began to discover that I have to use the bathroom or need a glass of water (the horror!). 

Trust me, I was not alone in my rudeness.  I watched one (grown) person take selfies during a presentation on rubrics and another (grown) person post on Instagram.   From now on, when I see that students have that glazed look in their eye or are looking for ways to distract themselves, I will stop what I’m doing, shift gears, and find new ways of engaging them.  This weekend I learned about two apps that can help me do that: Kahoot and Padlet.  I encourage all of my teacherfriends to check them out!

I wasn't bold enough to take a selfie during my session, but I did take one in my hotel room!

5.    Forget that students have lives outside of school.  Part of the reason that I was so disconnected this weekend was because I had a lot on my mind (report cards, MYP grades, portfolio requirements, professional evaluation, Chloe's birthday, Thanksgiving, how I'm going to get to Jersey to see Frozen on Ice).   This reminded me that sometimes students aren’t focused, and it has nothing to do with what you are or aren't doing in the classroom.  In the upcoming term, I will check in with my students more often to make sure  that I know if there is someone I should cut slack for.   Or, on the other hand, if there is a student with personal experiences that may enhance my lesson.

In my many years of teaching, the best staff meetings or professional development opportunities have involved discussions about children and or books (you would be surprised by how often this is not the case).  I love when teachers talk about something they did that really excited them.  Let's have more of that please;  I'm in search of inspiration!

Candacehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/116466582541965294400

Brunch is the New Dinner!

I love birthdays, but I decided to take a different, more relaxed approach to mine this year.  I chose to invite people to brunch at Ponty Bistro rather than dinner, and I wore a four year old dress rather than buy a new one. 

Chloe tried to pay for the cab ride to the restaurant!

After feasting on Caesar Salad and Lobster Ravioli (and drinking several lovely champagne, grapefruit and ginger concoctions) Mikita made me take a shot of Sambuca that nearly burned my face off.  Friendship, love, and laughter were plentiful at our table! 

Mikita said that the three coffee beans were for good luck, but I think that she was trying to trick me!

When we got home I climbed into bed with Marlon James's new book and listened to the rain outside before falling asleep.  When I woke up Chloe and I watched the Halloween episode of Blackish for the third time of the day.  Thanks to the generosity of my friends and family, today was the best day, birthday or otherwise, that I have had in a long time.  Let's hope that it is an indication of  the year to come!