Scholarly rigor. That is how I describe this morning with my third-graders.
I decided a few weeks ago that for Black History Month, I wanted to sneak in some social studies to an otherwise COMMARTS-MATH curriculum structure. I replaced my Daily Fix-It's (Daily Oral Language) with a morning activity in which the students learn about a new figure in Black History each day. The best so far was watching their faces when they watched a short video biography about Nelson Mandela ("Ms. Davis, I don't understand. How can someone be arrested for wanting what is right?").
One of the figures I knew I wanted to point out was Langston Hughes, not only because I admire his poetry, but also because he his from Joplin, Missouri, and the kids can relate to him. When I wrote up his biography for the Do Now series, I had an idea: What if my kids could read Langston Hughes poetry?
First thoughts? Langston Hughes is advanced poetry, much too advanced for third-graders, right? Especially third graders at reading levels from pre-kindergarten up, right? I decided to the whole "raise the bar" thing a try and just SEE what I could extract from their eager little minds. I designed a poem brochure: two poems, three questions, the same questions asked for each poem.
Curriculum says our students should compare and contrast this week, so that's exactly what we are going to do. We are going to compare and contrast the theme of dreams in two Langston Hughes Poems: "Dreams" and an excerpt from "As I Grew Older."
I set up my class like a college English class, with discussion and partner-shares being the majority of the lesson. I guided, I facilitated, but they THOUGHT.
I could literally not believe what kind of high order thinking came out of my students this morning. We talked about how Langston Hughes grew up in the turmoil of segregation and how he was poor but pursued his dream of being a writer. We read about life is like "a barren field frozen in snow" if we lost our dreams --- and THEY got what it meant. We talked about the walls that separate us from our dreams. When I asked them what wall Hughes was referring to, I was amazed by their answers: "His poverty?" "His color?" "Segregation."
For real. I'm not making this up. I was FLOORED.
More than any other point in my teaching career thus far, I felt what it meant to raise the bar for your students, raise the rigor higher than you can imagine, and they will RISE with your help.
Believe in our kids, they will surprise you.
I decided a few weeks ago that for Black History Month, I wanted to sneak in some social studies to an otherwise COMMARTS-MATH curriculum structure. I replaced my Daily Fix-It's (Daily Oral Language) with a morning activity in which the students learn about a new figure in Black History each day. The best so far was watching their faces when they watched a short video biography about Nelson Mandela ("Ms. Davis, I don't understand. How can someone be arrested for wanting what is right?").
One of the figures I knew I wanted to point out was Langston Hughes, not only because I admire his poetry, but also because he his from Joplin, Missouri, and the kids can relate to him. When I wrote up his biography for the Do Now series, I had an idea: What if my kids could read Langston Hughes poetry?
First thoughts? Langston Hughes is advanced poetry, much too advanced for third-graders, right? Especially third graders at reading levels from pre-kindergarten up, right? I decided to the whole "raise the bar" thing a try and just SEE what I could extract from their eager little minds. I designed a poem brochure: two poems, three questions, the same questions asked for each poem.
Curriculum says our students should compare and contrast this week, so that's exactly what we are going to do. We are going to compare and contrast the theme of dreams in two Langston Hughes Poems: "Dreams" and an excerpt from "As I Grew Older."
I set up my class like a college English class, with discussion and partner-shares being the majority of the lesson. I guided, I facilitated, but they THOUGHT.
I could literally not believe what kind of high order thinking came out of my students this morning. We talked about how Langston Hughes grew up in the turmoil of segregation and how he was poor but pursued his dream of being a writer. We read about life is like "a barren field frozen in snow" if we lost our dreams --- and THEY got what it meant. We talked about the walls that separate us from our dreams. When I asked them what wall Hughes was referring to, I was amazed by their answers: "His poverty?" "His color?" "Segregation."
For real. I'm not making this up. I was FLOORED.
More than any other point in my teaching career thus far, I felt what it meant to raise the bar for your students, raise the rigor higher than you can imagine, and they will RISE with your help.
Believe in our kids, they will surprise you.
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