Constructing Kasun, Educator

My students have been writing children’s books for a couple weeks now. We have written everyday in class, from random journal entries to reflections on the text we’re studying to ways to enter text. I say “we” because I write and share with them as well. It helps show that I value the writing process enough to join them as a writer. We’ve written about ways we have discriminated against others, a time we learned a lesson, our thoughts on school policies, among other things.

But now we’re focused on children’s books. My principal sent an email to several department chairs–a forward about the B’nai B’rith annual “Diverse Minds” scholarship competition. I shared it with my students, and they were eager to meet the challenge–write a 30 page children’s book dealing with diversity and tolerance.

We had just finished a unit study with the Holocaust, literature documenting it, and also the Rwandan holocaust (they read Left to Tell in another class–I also plan with that teacher to support their learning in both my class and hers–a subject for a future blog post). It was perfect timing for them to create something positive out of the rich discussion and text we had been working with.

The results? Students are collaboratively writing truly interesting, creative books. They are grappling with crafting interesting conflicts, finding clever resolutions, and characters. Using a blank template for each page (that I printed off of Powerpoint notes, three slides with notes per page), the students draw a mock picture and write their text next to it. I’ve noticed the students are giving each other helpful feedback and negotiating how to agree and disagree with each other well.

It will take some more time to complete the books, so I’ll give a final update when we’re finished. Who knows, in a few months, I may have some students with scholarship prizes, too. But the real payoff is how much the students are learning from the process.

Originally written January 16, 2007

After three full Alfie Kohn-influenced classes, one of my few reluctant students announced at the end of class, “I like this class, now.” Some of the others giggled and knew he had erred by admitting that in front of me. I turned away from the small group of students who were Googling an article in Spanish and said, “Gosh, Arslan, you didn’t have to add the ‘now.’” Then I smiled and got back to work. The students seemed relieved that I didn’t take it badly. How could I? I feel the same way. Now I like the class, too (a lot more than before). Trying to build an authentic community where I’m not just manipulating kids into doing what I want them to do feels a lot better–it’s so much less pressure and resonates with how I treat the people I care about in genuine ways, not the forced ways of the controlling schoolmarm.

Yesterday I learned a lot from my students. We were discussing the differences in cultures about how much room there is for believing there are non-rational phenomena like ghosts and elves, for example. I don’t normally have these kinds of discussions, but we had an extra 90 minutes together (my school has a system where we build in an extra 90 minutes of instruction with each class every two weeks or so). We discussed elves and looked at their origins in history. Several students shared stories about how they had heard about and even seen supernatural creatures. Honestly, as an American teacher, it was hard for me to believe them. But I sensed the students weren’t just kicking their imaginations into gear but rather sharing things they wholeheartedly believed to be true. Then a student from Egypt wanted to know if we could look up genies on the Internet. It turns out that genies originate in the Middle East and Islam. I had no idea. I also learned that they are part of the Muslim creation story, much like angels and fallen angels fit into the Christian tradition. The other Muslim students were excited to be able to share this with the rest of the class, and I was thrilled to be learning something from them. A student from a French-speaking African country shared how genies in French are different, and I related that the concept of genies is more similar in the US (the idea of the genie in the bottle–that got some Christina Aguilera wannabes going). I was using an LCD projector and showing the class articles on the web about these topics. One of the students wanted me to Google images of genies. We couldn’t find any good ones in English, so we went to the Google site in Egypt. Suddenly the screen was transformed into right to left Arabic. The non-Arabic speaking students were surprised and curious, and the Arabic speaking students were excited to see their language in front of the others. Eventually we got a genie image for everyone to see.

There’s a lot more authentic interaction going on in my classroom. There are about 21 students in each of my classes, and we’re still navigating between the free-for-all discussions and students raising their hands. I get the feeling that they’re all a lot more open to hearing my ideas as well as their own (more importantly). Today students spent most of their class time working in small groups, and I sense that they’re getting better at working together all the way around. In my next post I’ll reflect on their projects–writing children’s books with themes of diversity and tolerance as part of a scholarship competition.

Originally written January 10, 2007

Today was Day #2 of letting my kids be in control in class. It’s only the second time I’ve seen them after breaking the ideas about building a community from Alfie Kohn to them. OK, I’m still navigating the line between being the adult with more knowledge and life experience and allowing students to negotiate their own ideas through careful thought, articulation, and discussion among themselves. It’s exciting and still scary.

I guess because I believe in my students that I’m not surprised they did well. We reviewed how we would discuss as a group and then got to work quickly. We examined several art slides for different themes. The students also made meaning of the pieces they observed. Klimt’s “The Kiss” suddenly became “Death Grip” for some and “Unity” or “Pure Love” for others. Some students were surprised and disconcerted that the forms of the two bodies are not proportioned realistically. Amira pointed out that the woman is wearing a dress–something I had never realized before. They enjoyed the slides as well as the discussion.

The few students I have who seemed to have chips on their shoulders toward me seem to be losing them. Nuku used to ask me, “Why you always pickin’ on me?” Now she isn’t asking. Why? Because I’m not picking on her. Simple, isn’t it? The group does most of the shushing and careful listening. Instead, Nuku is spending her time trying to come up with clever titles for the pieces we’re looking at and sharing them with the group.

My most energetic group returned today as well. Charles was angry because he couldn’t find a seat near his friends in the circle. I found myself threatening him to take a seat. It was a relief that that other class members were also frustrated and telling him to sit down. But I’m still wondering what I/we can do to make the community become a place where none of the students are frustrated because they can’t sit near their friends for one day. I’m still working on that. This group eventually got to work on the slides and did well. Most agreed that today’s class went better than the last one. I’m optimistic that the communities in each class will continue to take real form.

posted on January 8, 2007

Yesterday was my first attempt at letting my high school ESOL students run the class. Today, I worked with my third and final class (I am also a department chair so do not teach a full courseload in my district).

Most of the students wanted the circle forum for discussion as opposed to the rows they had been in. A student asked, “What are you going to do if we don’t like it?” She seemed incredulous that I would seriously listen to her and change the seating arrangement. I asked if she didn’t like it. She said it felt too open. Almost all the others liked the seating, so I asked her to try it and see if she liked it. I explained that teachers are in the business of trying to teach, and the best we’ve usually come up with is dominating kids into submission, and that even for me the open space felt scary. What would happen if I really let them, the students control the class, I asked. She agreed to go ahead with the circle.

This group was rather quick at establishing the framework for how to talk with each other in the discussion circle, so we got to work.

To some degree, I still help direct a lot of the conversation, but the students are free to comment much more. The students were deciding which ideas qualify as themes or non-themes in literature. They’re working with the definition of theme as something they find in art which helps them understand life’s meaning–something that’s bigger than an object itself. One of the students said that “cats” are not themes. This led into a lively discussion as to whether or not domestic animals have feelings. No, this wasn’t directly related to themes, but I watched as students challenged each other’s thinking in proactive ways (when I sometimes stepped in and asked students how they wanted to talk to each other).

We had a small problem with some students having small side conversations while the whole group was trying to speak. Other students reminded them to be quiet, and the small side discussions seemed to grow smaller with the reminders. We ended with a discussion about whether “family” is a theme. One girl who has a special education label argued that family is a theme because when you hear the word family it makes you feel something. Another boy countered that family is the thing from which you might feel certain themes like love or betrayal. Different students took both sides and challenged each other. I allowed myself to break in and explain that both sides had presented logical arguments, and that we couldn’t conclue one way or another, definitively, that one side was correct. I pointed out that life is not always easily right or wrong and that we need to learn to really listen to each other to understand the different sides of a debate.

I asked the students if they had listened more in today’s class than in previous classes. They agreed that they had. While I didn’t “cover” all the curriculum I had planned, we did go deep into discussions that were meaningful to the students and helpful in learning how to negotiate. I’m looking forward to seeing how this works with the second day of discussion circle on Monday.

originally written  January 5, 2007

I made a frightening step today. I let the students have control over my class. I’m not talking about letting a few of them call on other students or give presentations or work in groups. I sat down, in a circle with them, and explained that I’m not going to control the class anymore.
I’m excellent at getting the students to sit quietly. I challenge the ones who dare to disobey. I ignore students who make comments that are nonsensical. I give the “teacher” look. But after seven years of teaching, I’m tried of making students obey me. My classroom isn’t a correctional facility. I want them to learn because they know on the inside that what we do in my classroom is for each of them, is something they desire and can use.
After reading Alfie Kohn’s Beyond Discipline: from Compliance to Community over the winter break, I decided it was time to try his theory out. He’s a constructivist, and so am I (in theory, not always in practice, regrettably). Why not stop trying to manipulate students with looks, tone of voice, and calculated gestures? Why not try to treat them honestly, with dignity and respect?
So I told my students I had read Kohn’s book. They know a lot about what I read because as a high school ESOL teacher, I want to share my enthusiasm about what I read with them. I brought the book and told them about it. I also told them I wanted them to run the discussion.
I tried it with each of two classes who met for 90 minutes. It’s almost the middle of the year, so I had an idea of what to expect. I guessed the first class would embrace the idea immediately and get to work on how we could communicate effectively by sitting in a circle instead of rows. My first question was if they liked the circle. It only took us a few seconds to establish that they preferred the circle to rows, “You can see everyone this way,” one said. “I can hear people better.” The next issue was how to talk. Some students wanted me to do the disciplining of others who might misbehave. I refused, explaining that I’m not going to continue to mete out punishments and rewards any longer. They then agreed that we would speak without raising our hands until there were too many people who wanted to talk, and then we’d have to call on people by looking for who had their hand raised first. We also figured out what to do if a person has their head on a desk during class. At first some of the students thought it was the problem of the student, but I pointed out that as part of a community—which they agree to try and create—we might worry about that student. We agreed that the student should let us know they’re having a bad day if that’s the posture they want to take.
Finally we got to some of the curricular work. We have been discussing themes. I had an activity where students picked out words which weren’t really themes in a list. They described why some of the words weren’t themes in pairs and then to the larger group. This was the best discussion I think I’ve ever had. Yes, one student tried to test the limits by saying that shoes really are a theme in literature because he wants to take his shoes with him to Heaven, but the other students finally agreed that it was time to move on. I didn’t cut off the conversation; they agreed that they wouldn’t all come to consensus, that it was ok, that it was time to continue. At the end of class I asked the students if they liked the dynamic; they said they loved it.
The next group was a bit more reluctant. Some of the more energetic young men joked during the discussion. One suggested “backhanding” students who talk out of turn. But instead of my having to bring the discussion around again, other students called on the young men and explained that it wasn’t fair of them to joke and not take the situation seriously. At first they were angry about being criticized, and I suggested gentle ways we could agree to offer criticism, and the student most vocal in her criticism rephrased it in a way that pointed out the behavior she didn’t like without accusing the young men of being bad people. There are a few students in that class who have what appear to be extreme emotional issues. One student has told us that he feels “rage” when people pick on him. That young man has seen many atrocities of civil war in Sierra Leone, where he grew up. Another young man mentioned getting hit with a whip at home for misbehaving at school; I can only imagine what kinds of violence he has endured. And there are other students with challenging issues. But, like I told the students today, I have the faith in them to believe that we can all treat each other with dignity and respect in our classroom community.
I have one more group of students to try this with. I’m confident they’re going to like it and will do well. I’m looking forward to hearing the students formulate ideas and really listen to each other. They are learning to negotiate in honest and earnest ways. And, like I’ve said to them, if they learn how to care about each other and negotiate well, that will be the most important part of what I will teach them all year.

Written Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007