Category Archives: Jeff Sutton; No More Fake Reading; Self-Paced Reading; English; English Department

Grouping Students on Personality Update #1

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In my September 14th post about “Grouping Students Based on Personality” I shared that I would have my students take the 16personalities.com test and then group students based on the following four categories:

Analysts (intuitive/thinking)
Diplomats (intuitive/feeling)
Sentinels (observant/judging)
Explorers (observant/prospecting)

I first met with Stacie, Sarah and Kristy to discuss how best to break down the groups. We all agreed having students from all four categories would be the ultimate, but in the event that I only had 2-3 students in one or more the categories, we agreed having at least three categories represented in each team group would be best. We also discussed sizes of groups and agreed groups of 4-5 (6 if necessary based on class numbers) would be be best.

Next, I labeled each of the students according to the four categories and then I focused on grouping the students (I have one all-girls class and two coed classes).

I also reviewed student surveys for how reading groups worked in our first unit. What I found was that students were all at different points in their reading within reading teams, thus for our SpiderWeb discussions I had to match students that were in the same section of the book. Some student feedback included a desire to stay in their same on-line discussion groups when we have SpiderWebs. Thus, I have decided to keep groups together on-line and for in-class discussions and have told the groups that they will need to determine reading deadlines themselves so that everyone is on the same page.

Instead of reading quizzes and questions, students are tasked with showing authentic engagement on the discussion boards and through SpiderWeb discussions. Michael Schooler had a great idea to continue to promote autonomy and the buy in has been tremendous. I allowed groups to tell me their reading deadlines as well as three times I accessed them individually on the discussion boards.

So, now my next question becomes how does this new teaming approach work? Will students hold one another accountable and have a better overall experience then they did in the previous unit?

The current unit centers around reading a refuge memoir, How Dare the Sun Rise, by Sandra Uwiringiyimana. Students are reading in teams and will complete a group research project about immigration and/or the refuge crisis. I have not given any formal directions, only told students they need to help one another understand and grapple with the text before deciding on something they want to research more about and educate the class on. I want my students to grapple with texts and ideas and ambiguity forces them to do that. No longer am I the expert with all the answers. No longer am I the one in charge of what a project looks like. Rather, students are in charge of everything and I am just a “mere” facilitator and adviser.

We are now two weeks into the students reading as a team – in on-line discussions and in-class SpiderWeb discussion. Thus far, keeping teams grouped together has provided more engaging than my previous unit.We had our first SpiderWeb discussions this week and I was smiling to myself as students were bringing up ideas/insights/questions/debates from their on-line discussion boards.

I will re-evaluate once we complete our unit and have the students take another survey.

On an overall note, taking a self-paced approach and connecting a new teaming strategy in my three sections of Writing Seminar has challenged me as a teacher. However, I know that my classes are now student-centered and that is extremely liberating for me after 10-plus years of traditional curriculum and teacher-centered learning That is so exciting and refreshing – even if it forces me to be a “student” also and come up with new, creative approaches on the fly while becoming a different type of task master with regards to assessment and individual student progress.

“No More Fake” Reading & the Self-Paced, Teaming Approach: Students Say It Works!!!

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In my September 14th post about “No More Fake Reading: Self-Paced Approach and Assessment”, I shared my focus on removing “Fake Reading” from my Writing Seminar classes this year. The overall goal in my blended approach is to make the class more student-centered and remove myself as the expert (for specifics, you can review my previous post).

I have removed reading deadlines, reading quizzes and questions – which promote use of on-line resources like Sparknotes – and instead have focused on reading teams that discuss the book on-line and also in SpiderWeb discussions in a self-paced approach.

I had students in my three Writing Seminar classes take a survey this week and the new approach clearly is working. I believe student autonomy and creating space (time) for students to grapple with texts as individuals and in their reading teams were a huge part of student buy-in. Also, having one-on-one reading checks with me and having to contribute to SpiderWeb discussions forced them to read because you can’t fake discussions on a book you’ve never read.

The two main questions from the survey that I want to share are: 1) How much of the books in English classes did each student read during their first three years of high school; and 2) How much of Glass Castle did they read in class this year. Students could respond with : 1) None; 2) 1/4; 3) 1/2; 4) 3/4; or 4) finished book..

Here are the results:

1) How much of the books in English classes did you read your first three years?

2nd Period (21 students) – None (1); 1/4 of books (1); 1/2 of books (9); 3/4 of books (4); Finished book (6)

4th Period (24 students) – None (0); 1/4 (3); 1/2 (6); 3/4 (10); Finished (5)

5th Period (26 students) – None (0); 1/4 (4); 1/2 (7); 3/4 (8); Finished (7)

***In my experience as an English teacher, these numbers are indicative of an approach that focuses more on teacher modeling and teaching daily and reading quizzes and questions.***

2) How much of Glass Castle did you read?

2nd Period (21 students) – None (0); 1/4 (0); 1/2 (0); 3/4 (12); Finished (9)

4th Period (24 students) – None (0); 1/4 (1); 1/2 (0); 3/4 (4); Finished (19)

5th Period (27 students) – None (0); 1/4 (1); 1/2 (1); 3/4 (9); Finished (15)

I was very excited to see the results. Of 71 students polled, only three students read less then half of Glass Castle. And of 71 students, 25 students finished 3/4 of the text and 43 (over have of my students) finished the memoir completely.

Additionally, I surveyed students on how they felt the on-line reading teams and SpiderWeb discussions went as well as how they felt engaged/learned through reading the book without me serving as the expert. I also surveyed how they felt these strategies prepared them for their final persuasive essay. I will include information on this in a later post.

Based on the surveys and in conjunction with implementing new teaming strategies based on the Myers Briggs personality inventory (I will post separately “Grouping Students Based on Personality Update #1)  I am hoping student buy-in will continue and the student-centered approach will become even more effective.