The Literate Teacher's Manifesto

This week my two Social Studies classes have been discussing the importance of perspective in the study of history.  The first key in getting middle schoolers to understand perspective is for them to know what it means.  I'm big believer in word parts, or stems.  The first thing we do is break down the word perspective  into its parts.  There are two stems from the vocabulary program we use at our school in the word:  per, meaning through, and spec , meaning look.  So we know that the word perspective involves looking through something.  And I like to think of perspective as a pair of metaphorical glasses.  We wear many pairs of metaphorical glasses, which color our perception of the world. We go on to list the ways our metaphorical glasses are created: by our families, our age, our life experience, how many episodes of Spongebob Squarepants  one has seen, proportion of time spent on Tumblr, and so on and so forth.  This part of perspective is pretty easy.  Because, after all, it

I'm sure we are all very familiar with the Duck Dynasty debacle of last year, in which Phil Robertson was chastised for expounding his personal views on homosexuality in an interview with GQ magazine. Now, I have no desire to hash over any of the controversy that ensued, but to bring up a related issue which, I believe, has the potential for significant repercussions in the battlefield that is public education these days. I first need to cite this link,  http://theeducatorsroom.com/2013/12/educators-learn-duck-dynastys-phil-robertson/ , which was the touchstone that set me to this posting. When the issue began exploding on social media, and my Facebook feed was divided between people rabidly supporting Robertson for what he said and people rabidly bashing him for what he said, I felt there was a much larger issue at stake, one that would have lasting repercussions long after the frenzy over his words had faded and been forgotten.  I posted a brief status about the issue, an issue

Let me begin by offering a few disclaimers.  First, a warning.  This will probably be a long post.  It may end up taking two different posts.  But this topic has been percolating in my brain for a few weeks and is finally beginning to come together.  Secondly, I know there are some of you who read this blog because you are a parent or a student and you are keeping up with the Shakespeare unit.  I have tried to be somewhat apolitical.  But these days, it seems, the men in suits have made the personal political for me.  You see, I love my profession.  I love my students.  I love public education, and I believe that it is one of the things that has made America great.  And I am ANGRY.  I am tired of being demonized.  I am tired of being portrayed as a lazy union thug who lives off tax payer dollars and refuses to be held accountable for doing my job.  So yes, I am bringing politics into my profession.  But it is because politicians have forced my hand. They have forced their way into my c

As my school's teacher of the year, I was invited to speak at our local Rotary Club for their monthly luncheon. The people there were representatives from the business community. I was supposed to talk about my school, and myself , and my teaching, and how everything is all hunky-dor y, but when it came right down to it I just couldn't stand up and lead those people to believe that everything is great in the state of American education. So I wrote this speech, which has pretty much become my personal teaching manifesto. A few of my BAT friends told me I should share it. The speech was very well-received at the meeting.  I've posted this on my FB page, and it is on Mark Naison's excellent blog,  With a Brooklyn Accent , as well as on the Badass Teachers' Association fan page on Facebook.  As a matter of fact, with 33 shares and over 700 likes from its original posting, it is probably floating around in many places. But I thought posting it to my own blog would be a g

So after two days of introductory activities,  we really started with Shakespeare on Wednesday of last week.  The lesson setup for the first day centers around Act I:i:1-80. I give the students copies of the first 80 lines with all stage directions removed.  We first read the scene round Robin,  and they circle any words they don't know.  We go through all the words,  then reread the scene again,  still round Robin.  Then we discuss the scene and characters,  who are they,  what are they doing,  what is the setting, etc. Finally I ask for volunteers to put the scene on its feet,  and the rest of the class acts as directors. It is so important to me for the students to be comfortable and confident in this first scene that we take two full days to work on it.  It is the first opportunity I get to make sure they feel comfortable and interested,  and to let them see that it is okay for them to feel confused and to ask a lot of questions.   They answer a series of nine questions about t