"Learning" standards

I am looking forward to Monday. In fact I can't wait to spend more time with my students. I've been enjoying watching them learn so much lately. In fact, they may be a bit on overload, as many of our eighth graders were able to participate as they spent some real time hearing from three different authors last week. And I know the visits had impact.

While I was only responsible for one of those visits and colleagues supplied the time and energy to make the others happen- they were three dynamic experiences. Something we know we need to spend time planning for and executing for our students. Experiences in addition to their regular schooling truly color their world and help spur growth.

Now I want to find out just how much growth- what was the impact of the experience? What can we do with what we learned? Unless we do something as a result of our time spent in experience we aren't setting standards worth reaching. But I feel good about that part- my students are good at setting and reaching for high standards. I've been watching them set and achieve since August when our journey began. This is how growth occurs.

As history/ literacy educators ,we set standards for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking. These standards, according to Webster's,  are described as a level of quality or attainment . In my building we are beginning to label student's achievement as basic, emerging, proficient, and excelling according to descriptors we provide that describe what they should know and be able to do at fixed points in their experience as eighth graders. And as I said, I think my students are pretty good at setting and achieving those standards.
 
One standard we have been working on is Inquiry standard SS. IC. 6-8 M.C.  Communicating Conclusions. The authors of the standard suggest mastery happens when students can present arguments and explanations that would appeal to a wide appeal to an audience and venues outside the classroom using a variety of media. My students see this as learning to tell/ teach history to others in the form of story- based on claims they make from research they have conducted.
 
Our visit this week was with author and story teller Brain "Fox" Ellis of Bishop Hill, Illinois. Fox worked with each of my classes, first by modeling a couple of good stories (all in all he played a dozen different characters on Friday) and then by eliciting some conversation with students about the process of remembering and telling and teaching. At then end of the day he conducted a more extensive work shop for some additional students who will serve as teachers to their classmates, sharing techniques he taught, so that we can all improve our ability to share story. His work with them was genius. And I know they were learning- it was written all over their faces and reflected in their conversations and the risks they were willing to take. I know there was learning- that's what I'm celebrating and strong holding this morning.
 
I will never forget how Tina reacted to Walt Whitman's recitation of O Captain, My Captain and subsequent telling of how the death of President Lincoln effected him at the end of the Civil War. I totally enjoyed watching my students learn from an old German woman who was held as a prisoner of war during World War II or an African American woman and slave who told her story of losing her son to the Confederate cause only to find him again. Their experiences with Fox (and friends)literally further opened my students eyes to a whole new way of learning history and teaching history.

I'm so grateful for Fox and his time and his talent- and I can't wait to hear what my students will do with this learning and how they will transfer it to their own performances. For I am sure that they will. That was our intended standard for the day. I am confident my students loved the experience- now they will seize the day and do something with their learning.
 

 
 "History is a story waiting to be found"... (stories) "remind us how we got here." (Mike)
 





This week my students learned an awful lot about telling stories. And as a result I have every confidence they will more willingly take on the tasks of digging deeper, reading closer, thinking deeply, writing stronger, and telling wonderful stories. They'll set new standards for themselves because they want to be good at what they do. They will see the challenge and raise the bar for themselves and I can't wait to see it. I always love watching them "learn" standards. Before long they'll all be excelling- for excelling can be contagious- and I that is worth celebrating for sure!