Remember what it’s like to be a student, constantly wondering if your teacher likes you, worrying about your next assignment and your next grade?
Me too.
I give out periodic “teacher progress reports” to my students to coincide with the progress reports I have to fill out for them.
These “progress reports” are an opportunity to hear raw student voices enter the way I think about our work together and the way I plan future lessons and future units. Unlike your principal, students spend dozens of hours with you and aren’t trained to hand you a compliment sandwich.
Here’s some of what I learned by going through student responses:
Students really, really, really like independent reading time. It’s clear from student feedback that independent reading is an important routine to their days. Some wrote about how they look forward to coming in from lunch to a silent classroom for some reading. Others wrote about how they enjoyed the time to do something they enjoyed. Many students asked me for more independent reading time. Aside from giving out candy (most popular suggestion #1) and going outside to play for class sometimes (most popular suggestion #2), more reading topped the list. Some students even ask me if we’ll ever spend a whole period reading.
They love to write when they know what I am — and am not — grading for. One of the beauties of setting up strong workshop routines is that there’s always a good sub plan in the wings. If I am going to be out of class for a period or two, I assign a “free choice” writing assignment. Students are responsible for handing in a writing piece on a topic or genre of their choosing, and they are graded only on their attention to the grammar and mechanics concepts that we’ve reviewed in class. By making the assessment so literal, students play with form, content, and message: I collect memoirs, mob stories, text message conversations (with graphics!), screenplays, journal entries, epic fantasies, and more.
Students love “ghost grades” on major assessments. I give students the option of a “ghost grade” on a draft for a major project. That grade serves as a) a minimum final grade, and b) a benchmark for future improvement with concrete feedback on what needs fixing. Students enjoy making changes and watching that lower “ghost grade” improve in the final draft. This ghost grade helps make some of their writing progress visible as far as the literal gradebook is concerned.
Do you do elicit feedback from your students? If so, what have you learned from that feedback?
Amy Estersohn is a middle school English teacher in New York. She will probably never give out candy, but she will, on occasion, give out emoji stickers, which students pretend not to care about. (But they do.) Find her on twitter at @HMX_MSE
This “problem” sort of took me by surprise. With my head hanging low, I must admit there was a time, not too long ago, when there were very few books in my classroom. There were very few books in my life period, besides the ones I “taught” year after
lining the walls of my classroom and students clutching copies of countless titles to their bosoms. Ryan Gosling walked into the room and said, “Hey girl. I really love the work you’re doing for public education. Let’s get those kids reading more. Cool?” When I came to, I was blushing, but more importantly, I knew that my students needed more choice. More challenge. More access to books.
by Patrick Rothfuss to our a class. A little bit here and a little bit there made the reading a habit again. I bought the book and handed it to one of his peers who flew through it too.
. It was really good, but I might be over nonfiction for a while.”
). Have you read this one yet? Take a look at the reviews in the front from past readers. This is a great book.”
last week, I put in his hands a copy of her incredible new release. He had asked for my copy a few days later when he finished his latest read, but it had already been checked out. He looked crestfallen. When I saw it yesterday on the new release cart in the library, I checked it out, and hunted JJ down during our resource period. “Wow. Thank you!“
smile and/or a small purchase will secure some free or discounted books.
by Angie Thomas, 
by Ibi Zoboi, and 
, the story of a school shooting told from various perspectives and written by 17 YA Lit. authors. Follow Lisa on Twitter @LDennibaum. 
other worlds and become part of them for the time we are in that book,” although that interpretation is certainly vital to developing readers who love books and to gaining empathy.
We teachers often talk too much. 
“Mrs. Dennis, do you remember emailing me about my one pager this week? You asked how I was liking The Association of Small Bombs.”
He knows that his reporting efforts can show “the American people what is actually going on” and that “the world is a better place when facts are clearly established and people have the right to think for themselves. I guess I just enjoy my role in presenting info & stories for people to use in that thinking process.”
the world’s bleeding” to Standing Rock. Having worked with the United States Army, firefighting, and in law enforcement, Sarah says that “being a paramedic comes close to what sets my soul on fire, but I’ve found that activism is where I belong. I use all the skills I’ve learned from those aforementioned fields, and apply them to activism.”
experiences, and the books and essays they’ve read as a result, with teaching them how to think. Bennett, I’ll be writing about again in a few years when he becomes the first President of the United States to listen more than he talks, but Austin is already putting his passions to good use through writing.
Three Teachers Talk 