Borrowed Cars and Discovery Learning

It maybe because I was trained to think about research qualitatively as an ethnographer instead of quantitatively as a statistician, but I think when talking about students, letting their words do the talking is more powerful than insightful commentary. And that is how I want to begin this blog, with the kids speaking:

Dear Mr. Terch,

We are reading That Was Then, This Is Now in English class with Mr. Logan. Have you read it? Well there is a part in the book where Mark takes the principal's car somewhere but brings it back. The principal wasn't mad. He actually thought it was funny. How wouild you feel if I stole your car sometime? I debated with the class that you would be fine with it. Well anyway. I'm gonna go.
                                                     Bye
                                                           McKenzie R

Dear Mr. terch
         Could I borrow your car to run to the York County prison to go sing to the inmates. LOL
                                From: Julie M.


Dear Mr. Church terch -

I think i could hotwire your car is ok i would give it back ok

Dear, love

Charles

OK editing mistakes should be ignored. I typed the notes to our principal exactly as they wrote them to maintain their integrity. There is a lot to learn here from my students in this 3 quick notes. I learned how they view the world, what writing issues we need to conquer this year, and some insight to their personalities.

Where'd all this come from? Like McKenzie wrote to our principal, we were discussing chapter 4 of That Was Then, This Is Now and I was attempting to connect the story to their own lives by asking the question: how do you think Mr. Terch would react if he discovered one of you driving his car into his parking space after frantically looking for it. Several students wanted to argue that our principal would have been "fine with it." I encouraged them to write to him. The above were their responses.

Finally, I was able to incorporate the text from the novel for my grammar mini-lesson today. I called it a Preposition Quest. The students were supposed to work in their groups to find a sentence from chapter 4 that features a preposition and another sentence featuring a compound preposition. I reminded them that, since I had already instructed them to put the definitions of each into their notebooks, they should be able to find the definition in their notebook.

Do you remember I told you I was a Murphy's Law kind of guy? I left a copy of our writing and grammar text on each desk, just in case. You see, just because they wrote the definitions in their notebook is no guarantee they remembered to bring the notebook to class. Sometimes they bring the wrong notebook, come with no notebook, or were absent the day of the lesson. No problem. I encouraged them to use the texts if they neeed to and also reminded them how to find discreet information in a textbook. Use the index. We also discussed that if there was a chapter about prepositions, whether the index would list the chapter by a single page or a range of pages. Some kids still went to the single page reference that only obliquely referenced a prepositional phrase without defining it.

I remember having a new teacher I was charged with mentoring a few years back. He'd be irritated about something a middle schooler did and demand I explain the unexplainable: "Why'd he do that?" The answer was simple: "He's 13." My answer to everything. The mantra achieves calm for middle school teachers and it works for both sexes and all middle school ages. Repeat after me. "She's twelve." "He's fourteen" "They're eigth graders." After years of fighting the natural behaviors of early adolescents, somewhere around year 8 I figured out that instead of fighting it, I should accept it and redirect it. That's the year I traded rows for pods and silence for an unquiet pedagogy (yes, I read that book in grad school too.)

A chattering class focused on a task and slipping in references to last night's game or the latest middle school gossip is a healthy one. It was fun to bounce around the room eavesdropping on kids arguing whether the sentences fit the bill of a compound preposition while trying to slip in some off-topic conversation. You know what's funny about teachers who are obsessed with off-task dialogue? They are the exact same people who irritate me when I'm trying to listen to directions from our administrators in faculty meetings and in-service meetings. If they can do it what makes them think their kids can't? I trust my students to meet or at least attempt to meet my expectations. Ironically, I cannot carry on a conversation and listen to instructions simultaneously, so I appear to be a model audience member in those situations. Unlike their teachers, students have a tendency to police themselves when they're focused on the task. Often before I have a chance to redirect, the kids themselves remind each other "We gotta get this done!"

I can't decide which I enjoyed more today-- the letters to Mr. Terch or the 4 panel comic depicting Mark's car story. Supposedly, there is a way to embed photos onto the blog articles themselves. I am going to see Mr. Terch and Mrs. Spangenberger to investigate how to do it. Some of the cartoons were pretty cool. The lingering future assignment kept students motivated to finish the grammar assignment. My kids like drawing this year. I heard many "We gotta get this done so we can draw!" numerous times today."

That's my story. Lesson learned today--- don't let the kids know which car is yours-- they might borrow it. <grin>