Wednesday, October 3, 2007

I'm running away to join the circus...

wait, I'm already part of a circus. It is called my classroom.

At least that is how I am feeling right now. As Cindy so artfully described on her blog, our first few days with the No-Book Book Clubs have been a little rough. It hasn't helped that I wasn't in school yesterday due to a meeting and it seems that I'm bringing my C or D game to the classroom. Maybe it is time to bring someone up from the minors to pinch hit for me...can you tell that baseball was on in the background while I was grading this evening?

OK, I am going through a phase when I am particularly tough on myself...at least that is what my mentor said this morning. And Cindy, a teacher with more experience than me, seems to believe that the class is not a complete disaster, so I will try not to pack my bags just yet.

What I am struggling with is the fact that it appears that the majority of students are fairly disengaged with the class. Comments such as "I thought the story was boring" or listening to a student retell the entire story because another student clearly did not read are disheartening to me. Similarly, it appears that my careful creation of groups and foundation for quality discussions were in vain. One entire group sat and stared at each other today! It may be that my perception is off here, so I will keep watching and try to keep an open mind.

This all leads me to some bigger questions...

Why do the students not feel a stronger sense of personal accountability? What is it that has allowed the students to feel that they are not responsible for maintaining at least the appearance of a conversation? Does the fact that they are discussing with "just" their classmates play a part here? Would it be different if they felt they were going to be held personally accountable to me? Am I simply reacting in frustration because this group of students won't "play school" the way I think they should? If book clubs are an "authentic" experience with literature, do I try to put too many "school" parameters (sheets to fill out, cumulative assignments, etc.) on them? Without the school parameters would the book clubs function at all? Is it possible to create an "authentic" experience inside a classroom?

As I think about my own book club experiences I begin to wonder about this social aspect. I'll save my thoughts there for another post, but the preview is that if my book club didn't like a book we simply sat and ate snacks and visited...and we payed for and read the books! Is that what some of my students are doing? Is that OK? If it isn't (and every fiber of my being says it isn't), how do I motivate them to at least attempt a discussion?

No comments: