What Blogging in 2020 Taught Me

2020: The record high teaching anxiety of the year somehow transmuted into blog posts with record high views. No joke. In 8-1/2 years of blogging, 4 of my top 10 are now from 2020, including the #1: “7 Things I Learned Starting a School Year Online.” That was the most remarkable bit of data that emerged from my traditional review of the year’s blogging. (Here are the links for reviews of 2019, 2018, and 2017.) As I continued to reflect, I found that while my reasons for blogging have stayed the same, everything has taken on new dimensions in this strangest of years. 

Over those last 8-1/2 years, I’ve become almost addicted to weekly blogging. Sitting down on a Saturday afternoon to really hash through with myself something that’s gone on during the week has become core to what I do as a teacher. 

• For myself: It’s an opportunity to articulate what did or didn’t go well and why, or simply to hold myself accountable to having done something during each week worth reflecting on. 
• For my students: It has solidified my own identity as a writer, so that when I teach writing, I’m speaking from experience. 
• For community: I need a place to share my teaching attempts, successes, struggles, growth, a place I can offer and receive help and encouragement.

However, 2020 scooted me way out of my comfort zone, challenging me to grow not only in a new mode of teaching (online), but also in new grade levels (middle school) and new field (adding ESL to English language arts). March and April were anxious months (the blog evidence: I only wrote 2 posts each month), but looking back over the top 6 posts of 2020, I can see how I’ve grown. Here they are: 

1. “7 Things I Learned Starting a School Year Online” (July 24; 2,338 views) Having moved to Japan to start a new school year in April, and starting it online, I’d already been through what American teachers were dreading. I was delighted that what I was able to share apparently filled a need!
2. “Hexagons Spur Creative and Collaborative Thinking!” (October 3; 570 views) “Hexagonal thinking” has been featured on 2 blogs I follow and used widely in the Creative High School English Facebook group. That encouraged me to try this excellent way of showing and promoting the thinking skill of making connections. And I could fold my blog back into the discussion. If you haven’t tried this in a class, I highly recommend it.
3. “Resources for Teaching News/Media Literacy and Current Events”  (August 14; 455 views) This has been a growing interest of mine over the last 5 years, and the pandemic-election conjunction brought the need into sharp focus. I curated a list of resources over the summer, and saw many opportunities to share the post. What I really got a kick out of, though, was seeing someone I didn’t even know sharing it in answer to a question in the Creative High School English Facebook group. When somebody has found something I made helpful enough to pass on… 
4. “One Easy Exercise for Paying Attention to Language” (November 14; 423 views) Though I’ve always had ESL students in my English classes, targeting English language learners in a school setting has been a new experience. I want to really help them thrive—not just survive. Larry Ferlazzo’s book The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox has been an amazing resource. I’ve committed to trying one new strategy from it per week. When I blog on it, I share it in ESL teachers K-12 Facebook group. It’s been great to be able to glean ideas from this community and to finally have something to also give back! 
5. “Creating Classroom Community Remotely: My Best Practice” (May 9; 375 views) Another post relative to online learning. NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) asked permission to share it on their blog. I’m thankful for the little successes in the steep learning curve on online teaching, and for the ability to plough back into the connected educators’ community a little of the value I’ve gotten from it. 
6. “Prompting Fluency in Writing for ESL Students” (October 30; 274 views) Another idea from Larry Ferlazzo’s book. The really fun thing here was that a teacher I’ve never met from the ESL teachers K-12 Facebook group asked to use a blog post I’d written in a Youtube video she was doing. I find that kind of educator synergy so energizing!

The long and the short of it? 2020 has grown my online community, and grown my teaching repertoire. Thanks especially to all the members of the Facebook groups ESL teachers K-12 and Creative High School English. Those communities helped immensely. And it’s okay with me if I don’t have to grow quite as much in 2021, but it’s good to know it was possible.

Fueling the Brain with Independent Reading

Reading is essential because it fuels the brain. —middle school student on exam

One experiment I've run this year is giving 6th and 7th graders 10 minutes per class for independent reading. (Except while reading the whole class novel Wonder, when reading time was devoted to that book.) As a part of the exam before Christmas, I asked students to reflect on the reading they’d done (questions taken from Larry Ferlazzo’s book The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox—Strategy 1 Independent Reading, Figure 1.1 End-of-Quarter Reading Reflection). Through that reflection, I was reminded what a good practice it is, I learned some things about my students, they set some goals for themselves.

First, what we did: Students brought a book of their choice and read for the first 10 minutes of the period. Most of the time I read with them. This has been shown to correlate highly with the success of independent reading—whether the teacher demonstrates her own value for the activity. Sometimes I gave a quick book ad for one I’d finished, and sometimes I gave a quick reminder of the value of reading and why we were spending this time "just reading": growth in vocabulary, knowledge of the world, writing skill, empathy, focus, enjoyment… 

Once a week I circulated and recorded the book and page number for each student. We could have a conversation if a student isn’t making much progress (or are on an earlier page than last week!). Sometimes I suggested a change of book if it was too difficult or not interesting. I have a classroom library, and I always had a couple of recommendations on hand when I saw a student was nearing the end of a book. 

Sometimes we made connections between independent reading books and what we were studying in class. We finished the term with students each giving a book ad for one of the books they had read.

Frindle by Andrew Clements was very popular with the boys. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo with the girls. Auggie and Me with everyone when we had finished Wonder by Patricia Palaccio. One boy will read anything by Alan Gratz. A couple discovered Percy Jackson and are racing through the series. One loves A Place to Belong by Cynthia Kadohata, one Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, and another Genius: The Game by Leopoldo Gout. 

I learned that students have read an average of 5 books each this fall trimester. That's a pace that would mean 15 books in a year! I think they surprised themselves. I was also surprised to learn that one student reads voraciously in another language. 

Here are a few more of the questions and student answers:

How do you feel about your progress in reading? 

• I feel like I’m getting faster at reading, able to zip through sentences in a matter of seconds. 
• I think I’m improving in focusing on the book. 
• When I used to read, I would read the same line twice, but now I don’t do it as often. 

What strategies are you using to help you understand your book?

• Summarizing chapters into a long sentence. 
• Looking up words I don’t know. 
• First I read the front and back. 
• I would visualize what’s going on and re-read the sentence until I understand. 
• Ask questions to people who have read the book.

What changes will you make as a reader next term? 

• I will read longer, more challenging books. 
• I think I will try to make time to read every day. 
• I want to read more books than I read this term.  
• After finishing The Famous Five series, I’d like to read books that are thicker.

What do you need to become an even better reader? 

• I need a place where it’s quiet and I can focus on my book more. 
• Ask for more book recommendations.
• Partner to talk about my book with.

Finally, here are some of the ways students filled in the sentence "Reading is ___ because ___":

• Reading is essential because it helps improve your vocabulary and focus.
• Reading is hard because there are words I don’t understand.
• Reading is soothing because it reduces my daily stress.
• Reading is important because by reading a book you can get knowledge and can be a better writer. Unlike the internet it is more likely for the information you got from a book to remain in your brain. And obviously it is fun.

Love that last one. Especially the way all that information about reading had to be crammed into a 1-1/2 inch blank! 

Making Learning Meaningful with Article Choice Sets

• I realized that I always buy stuff that I don’t need. In this article, it said “Ask yourself if you really want something before you buy it.” When I saw this sentence, I thought that I should take that advice. (from student response to “How to save money as a kid”)
• What interested me the most was Michael was diagnosed with epilepsy and he needed to stop gymnastics, climbing trees and diving—all of the things that he loved. If I were Michael I would be really sad. I think that’s why he thought more strongly to help the other people. (from student response to “This 10-year-old opened a bakery; for every cupcake he sells, he gives one to the homeless”)
• I was surprised because he actually created a bank for children. Usually we end up only thinking about it and don’t take any action, but he actually created a bank. I noticed that it’s a very good thing to take action rather than just thinking about it. (from student response to "Teen entrepreneur in Peru runs a bank for kids, helps environment")

I love it when students really engage with the class material, not just because it is assigned, but because something in it piques their curiosity or grabs their attention. That happened recently in an 8th grade EFL class, and I want to replicate this activity in future units. The magic fairy dust, I think, was student choice, practical application or real-life models, and an ethical dimension—all while practicing reading, writing, thinking, speaking, and listening in English.

I took the “article of the week” idea and married it to student choice based on the unit topic, which was money, to go with the grammar focus of quantifiers. NewsELA is a great source of articles for students learning English because the articles are available at 5 different lexiles. A quick search of the topic “money” turned up 3 articles that had variety, relevance, an ethical dimension, and a global component:

• How to save money as a kid (lexile choices: max, 850, 720, 560, 430)
• Teen entrepreneur in Peru runs a bank for kids, helps environment (lexile choices: max, 1190, 1030, 840, 560) 
• This 10-year-old opened a bakery; for every cupcake he sells, he gives one to the homeless (lexile choices: max, 810, 660, 550, 410)

I made copies to pass around and gave students one minute to scan and then pass, deciding at the end which of the three articles they were interested in reading. I was delighted when I had some takers for every article.

The assignment I adapted from a free article of the week template on Teachers Pay Teachers. There are several pages of thorough explanation, expectations, sample articles and reflection questions, and a grading sheet—grab the packet if you’re interested. Here’s briefly what students did with their chosen article:

1. Close read and annotation: Highlight or underline at least 3 words/phrases you find important, interesting, confusing, and write a note in the margin for each about why you selected that bit. This is your brain on paper, showing me your thinking about what you’re reading as you read (see above). 
2. Summary statement: Title, summary verb, and approximately 50 words
3. Vocabulary journal form (4 entries): These are 1/2-page forms including places for the word, part of speech, definition, context sentence, visual representation, synonyms, and antonyms (see below).
4. Reflection: I used a list of sentence stems, out of which students were to pick 3 and complete each with 2-3 sentences. (I noticed…, I wonder why…, I can relate to this because…, etc.) 

Vocabulary journal form

We took it slowly because this was the first time through for an 8th grade EFL class: one day each for reading, vocabulary, summary, response. After each step except reading, students shared with the class in some way: teaching one of their vocabulary words to classmates, reading aloud their summary, and presenting the combined summary and response for a question/answer time. I'd love to do this with my 6th/7th grade ELA class as well as my high school EFL class. In a future use, I'd also wrap up with a discussion of the ethical aspects of money. This time I tried introducing the articles that way, and it was a little slower going. So much potential here! 

The Monsters Are Due at Christmas?

It seemed singularly out of step with the run-up to Christmas. A Twilight Zone episode featuring aliens toying with human machines just enough to trigger their fear which turns them against each other. But it was a piece that kept coming up as good middle school material, my curriculum was missing drama, I found a good unit on Teachers Pay Teachers, and the timeframe fit. I ignored the un-Yuletide-y vibes and plunged ahead.

As the unit drew to a close, I began to see that I had been wrong. “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is, in fact, very appropriate to Advent. We long again for angels to appear and say what they always say: “Don’t be afraid.” 

It’s become cliche to refer to 2020 being a year of uncertainty and fear with the Covid-19 pandemic, economic fallout, a worldwide reckoning on racism, a polarizing US election, and much more. The year 1960, when this most popular Twilight Zone episode first aired, was raked with its own uncertainty and fear—the Communist Control Act of 1952 was successfully used for the 2nd and last time, the US entered the Vietnam War, and the USSR shot down the US U2 spy plane. The show was remade as “The Monsters Are on Maple Street” in the wake of 9-11 and the fear of global terrorism. 

Rod Serling shows us a vision of the human tendency to respond to fear with suspicion and scapegoating, which will ultimately destroy exactly what they are trying to preserve. How can we opt out of that herd mentality? Especially when the reasons for fear seem really concrete and probable? Recently, a friend posted this quotation from Henri Nouwen that resonated with me: “Optimism and hope are radically different attitudes. Optimism is the expectation that things—the weather, human relationships, the economy, the political situation, and so on—will get better. Hope is the trust that God will fulfill God's promises to us in a way that leads us to true freedom. The optimist speaks about concrete changes in the future. The person of hope lives in the moment with the knowledge and trust that all of life is in good hands...Let's live with hope.”

Trying to figure out how to share my growing understanding of how Christian hope fights fear with 6th and 7th graders, I realized I had a day on the calendar blocked for reading a Christmas story while I was commenting on rough drafts of the theme essay. I got out one of my favorites, “Guests,” by Katherine Paterson, from her collection Angels and Other Strangers. It’s set in Japan—the setting of our school—during World War 2—also a time of great uncertainty and fear. When I came to the last line, I knew I had my connection: “For the first time in many years, Pastor Nagai obeyed the angel’s word” (36).

What faith gives me is the assurance that even when the physical threat is real, it is a bigger threat to not show the compassion God has shown us--a threat to our eternal souls and the souls of others who won’t see God in us. Not only that, but God empowers us to choose his compassion. And, in the compassionate hand of God, we know our eternal destiny is safe.

May we, too, in these waning days of 2020, obey the angel’s word.