What can I say to my students?

I cannot stop thinking about the families, teachers, students and all the townspeople of Newtown, CT.  There can be no justice, no meaning made.

Now the question that wakes me: What can I say to my students?

Death is not unfamiliar to most of them.  One eighth grade student just uncovered his brother's dead body in bed last month after a drug overdose.  He was absent for three or four days, and when he returned he was eerily "normal," just a bit hyper-focused on his work.  As the weeks have passed, Dylan's grip on himself has continued to slip.  He cannot sit still.  He runs and jumps into the reading corner bean bag chairs, throwing a pink one overhead while the rest of the students looked on from their group work, annoyed.  I've been quietly reminding them to be patient with him, but how can they fully understand his grief?  How can I gently help him cope in class, beyond linking him with the appropriate trained psychologists and counselors outside of my classroom?

So many students, so much pain.  Some are not very well cared for, in dirty clothes, with unwashed hair and darting eyes.  So many in foster care or living with aunties and grandparents.

And now this.

How will I start the conversation in a way that is sensitive, gentle, productive, healthy?  How else would an ELA teacher proceed?  Books.

A professor of mine at the University of Kentucky's Library and Information Science program introduced me to the field of bibliotherapy.  Books can help start healing conversations with students, as well as help them cope with the myriad issues with which they struggle.  One caveat though, exemplified in the case of my student Dylan, is that the student must be ready to cope with the issue.  If not, they might react negatively to the book I give them, as it might force them to acknowledge a pain they're avoiding.

Still, for tragic events that affect all of us, I think it's important to start the conversation, because the kids are going to have a lot of questions.  One blogger who has been through tragedies with her students, including witnessing a suicide and 9/11, writes of success using Charlotte's Web with her kindergartners to help them cope with these tragedies.

Of course my early adolescents need something with more grit.  I found a list of school shooting books on GoodReads, and I just ordered Columbine by Dave Cullen and Shooter by Walter Dean Myers from the local public library.  I'll share this student review of Teen Ink, and when I go pick the books up form the library, I'll ask for picture books about grief to start the conversation.

After a tragedy like this, my first thought is, how can I help my students?  My second thought is how can we, as a society and as teachers, prevent such tragedies from recurring?  While some make the case for the rarity of mass public shooting, that it happens at all should be an impetus for prevention.

William Glaverson of the New York Times writes an important piece on the difficult questions we ask after such a tragedy.  Apparently, in all or most of the public massacres in the last twenty years, the mad men (and they have nearly all been men, and all mentally ill) have made numerous "cries for help" before they committed their murders.  I believe the social stigmatization of mental illness, particularly for men in our nation, is partly to blame.  If only they could receive mental health treatment as easily as they could acquire automatic weapons.

On the front end, teachers and adults in the community can and should do more to support the emotional well being of all their students.  It is easy to ignore the loners, the boys who eat lunch alone, who face ridicule, who are unwell, especially if they don't cause class disruptions.  We must take the time to reach out to them, to their parents, and to get them the mental health services they may need early, before more fall victim to the violent expression of pain endured to the breaking point of the mentally ill.

What can I say to my students?  How about, "Are you okay?"

Common Core Help

Because Kentucky was the first state to roll out (and assess at all grade levels, yikes!) the new Common Core State Standards, Kentucky teachers are hip to the shifts and challenges of implementing these more rigorous standards.  After a year and a half of working with them, I definitely believe they will improve public education.

For one of my library science classes I created a pathfinder -- an electronic research assistant. I created this one on Google Sites to assist K-12 classroom teachers seeking information on the new common core state standards.  It's a great resource for anyone who has questions about the standards and how to implement them.

Words that are Worth their Weight

One thing I love about teaching, is how you get to start fresh each August and revise the work of the year before.  This year, I took my old idea of an interactive word wall (credit to Janet Allen, of course!), and revised it to include the three tiers of vocabulary instruction.

Tier 1 Vocabulary
Tier 1 words are basic, common sight words.  Simple, single-meaning words like "good" or "dog" or "sad" or "sit." Dr. Seussy words that are critical vocabulary for younger students and emerging readers. For middle school students, however, Tier 1 words make for pretty lousy writing.  Thus, the Tier 1 words have become our "'Bad' Words." 

Tier 1 Vocabulary

Early in the year, we discuss what makes precise writing. As kids use "he" or "it" vaguely, I redirect them to be more specific about who or what they're writing or talking about. They "find a better word" and hang the "bad word" on the wall for future reference. From there, they love to listen for bad words and help keep each other (and me!) precise and clear.

Tier 2 Vocabulary
These words are part of the general academic language that opens doors for students.  I used to call them SAT words when I was their age.  Since the student population I teach isn't as obsessed with the SAT as we preppy little Catholic school students were, I now call them "Money Words" in my classroom.  These words are "rich," in that they are specific and enrich writing.  They're also "five-dollar words," and most importantly, they are the words the acquisition of which will provide my students with better, more lucrative opportunities. 

Tier 2 Vocabulary

These are words my students find in their reading throughout the year.  When they don't know the meaning of a word, they use context clues, roots, the dictionary and me to access the meaning of the word.  As they learn new, more precise, rich words, they write them on these sticky sentence strips and post them on our word wall.  Students enjoy the kinesthetic aspect of this routine, and they compete to see who can post the most Money Words.  Not only do they enjoy adding to the word wall, they also refer to it as they write to get ideas and inspiration to enliven their word choice.

Tier 3 Vocabulary
These are domain-specific words.  So, in biology "mitosis" and "nucleus," and in math "slope" and "algorithm."  These words aren't widely used and don't necessarily provide much capital beyond their field.  Tier 3 words are still important to each content area, however, for accessing, processing, understanding, discussing and reflecting on the content.

Tier 3 Vocabulary

As we learn literary terms, literacy skills, or discuss unfamiliar terminology of the study of English language arts, students write down the words and post them for later reference and review. 

Tier 3 used to be the main focus of ELA vocabulary instruction.  With the new Common Core Standards, however, has come vocabulary revolution.  The Common Core shifts in ELA and math are pushing instruction to more rigorous realms.  Where we used to teach domain-specific vocabulary nearly exclusively, we now teach students to mine complex texts for rich, multi-layered academic language.  The emphasis on the subtleties and the multi-faceted, organic nature of language pushes students beyond the rote memorization of words like "metaphor" and "synecdoche" to understanding the ways in which authors use words to play with language and make deep, real meaning. 

The shift from Tier 3 to Tier 2 is so much more than new vocabulary lists.  It's a move BEYOND vocabulary lists to deep analysis and acquisition of powerful words that can empower students.