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On the Shoulders of Giants

Rigorous young adult literature of "dumbed down" classics?

By Ariel Sacks

5/9/13

Working on my book, now titled, Whole Novels for the Whole Class: A Student Centered Approach, I found myself explaining why most of the literature I assign my 8th graders to read are works written for young adults--the YA genre.

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When Confidentiality Inhibits Problem-Solving

By Ariel Sacks

5/9/13

I spent the day away from my students grading the writing portion of the 8th grade NY State Common Core ELA Exams. I got to grade one short response and one extended response. I've done this in previous years, but given all of the changes in the exam format and the standards being assessed, everyone was paying extra close attention to the way we were were trained to score the questions.

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Common Core Shift--Notes for Revisions

By Ariel Sacks

5/9/13

I have been a fan of the Common Core Learning Standards for ELA since I first read them a few years ago. By and large, the Common Core Standards represent a shift that is more in line with what I've always tried to focus on in my teaching. I actually like these nicely organized standards that push toward deeper thinking.
I have a few concerns though. In no particular order, here they are:

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Students Visually Represent Their Emotions on Testing :/

By Ariel Sacks

5/9/13

Directly before administering Day 2 of NY State Common Core ELA testing, about two 2 weeks ago, I gave students a warmup sheet, which asked them to "draw an emoticon or face that shows how you are feeling about the test today." Then it asked them to free write about it in the space below.  

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What's Working: Convenient Current Events Resources for Middle School

By Ariel Sacks

5/9/13

Have you struggled to fit current events into your curriculum? Feel like current events is an "all-or-nothing" sort of thing to teach, and if you can't do it all, then might as well do nothing? I have. Here are two resources that have resolved that issue for me this year. 

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New State ELA Exam Tests Students' Speed in Reading, Writing, and Thinking

By Ariel Sacks

5/9/13

Any classroom teacher could have looked at Day 2 of the NY State ELA Exam that was administered last week on Wednesday and known that it was too much for students to do in the alotted 90 minutes.

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Extreme Teacher Leadership

By Ariel Sacks

5/9/13

Journal Entry: 3/29/13
This is one of those moments where I have so much on my mind, that I don't know what to write about. So I'm just going to level with you:

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Dream Hybrid Roles for Teachers?

By Ariel Sacks

5/9/13

I've dreamt of a hybrid role that allows me to teach part time and lead part time.  Here, for example, was my birthday wish a few years ago...

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Can we get real about the purpose of education?

By Ariel Sacks

5/9/13

I was reading through some of my favorite bloggers' posts of last month, which I missed and came across this powerful and troubling post by Renee Moore, Lessons From My Fathers. It tells the story of black men in her family, who played by society's rules and pursued their education, only to end up with low paying jobs that do not allow them to adequately support their families. 
She concludes, 

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Is your class important? Conversation overheard on train…

By Ariel Sacks

5/9/13

Riding the train home from work today, I was sitting in the vicinity of two 14 year old-looking boys I'd never seen before. They were having a somewhat raucous conversation about taking pictures and posting them and then deleting them and getting girls' numbers and that sort of thing. My tired mind tuned it out, and when I happened to tune back in, the conversation had taken a turn:
"Nah, I didn't do that either," said the first boy.
"I might fail that class," said the second boy.

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