Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2002
Giveliness, posted at 5:04 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I had one of my best teaching days of the semester today, until I scarred a student for life in the last eight minutes of 7th period.So, today was the day that we went over the essays students wrote for this standardized test thing a few weeks ago. The essays were all scored by the scoring team by the state rubric, and each essay received a score between 1 and 6. There was only one 6 in all of the 9th grade, and she was my student. :)
Anyhow, as a scoring team, we came up with "anchor papers" for each of the levels. This is the perfect 5, this is the perfect 4, etc. Each did was the rubric stated it would do to a T. A 3 might have minimal support and a few errors in usage, for example.
Anyhow, today the students received a packet of the six anchor essays, one for each level on the rubric. These were actual essays written by students, so I informed the four students who happened to be mine beforehand about them. I told them that their essay would be anonymous, and that I would make sure that fellow students were civil and constructive in their critiques, not mean. I told them this was a good thing, because they would be getting tons of feedback on their writing and no one would have to know it was theirs.
Anyhow, I gave the same spiel to my class today. Be respectful, imagine it was your essay, blah, blah, blah.
Well, it was I who broke my own rules.
I think I wrote the day we gave the tests that us scoring teachers had a good laugh at some of the essays. We were exactly like the teachers in This Onion article. Well, one of these funny essays slipped through and actually was an anchor for a "3" level essay.
I'll write her introduction here: "What I look for ina friend is humor, giveliness, and nice. I already have a friend with these traits. Her name is Kaitlyn, she is my best friend."
Yes, giveliness.
Oh, she explains what it is: "The next thing I look for in a friend is giveliness. The reason I said that was because I am nice and I am not stingy with things. I would want a friend who is nice just because like if you want something, like some of their candy, they would offer you some of it. Also the reason I said giveliness is because your friend would be willing to help someone they see need help, or is in trouble instead of sitting back and watching them suffer."
Well, I think you have to admit that giveliness is a very important quality for anyone to have.
Anyhow, we had a good laugh at it, and it became the word of the week for our English team. We would say things like, "Oh, that was so nice of you! I admire your giveliness!". It wasn't done maliciously, I don't think, although I certainly wouldn't want the writer - who I'll call Josie - to have heard it.
Anyhow, the joke had run its course for me. So I thought. The kids got the essays today, and of course many of them picked up on the "giveliness" of the essay. "What's that?", they would ask. I kept my cool the whole period.
Then, it was the group's turn to read it aloud. I had given them strict instructions not to laugh and to remember that the person whose essay it was could be sitting in the room. And she was, in the group next to theirs. But I digress.
The kid started reading it, and there might have been a hint of a chuckle under his voice, but nothing major. Then, I looked over at Josie. She had the paper up over her face, and she was laughing - silently, but rather uncontrollably. I turned around, not wanting to look at her, but I lost it. Bad.
I started giggling uncontrollably. I felt like I was 14. I couldn't talk. The kids, of course, noticed right away. That made them all break out laughing. Especially Josie. She was seriously laughing her head off. I think that's what kept me going. I wasn't laughing at her essay - and I explained that to her later - but just at the whole situation, I think. Anyhow, the kids started saying things like, "He's turning red!" and that of course made me laugh even harder. I just couldn't stop. I had to step towards the door and regain my composure. Then, I said, "Okay, okay, back to the essay," but this kid knew I was still on the edge and he started laughing and I was right back there.
Well, at least Josie was laughing too. But I felt awful. Terrible. I didn't want her to think I was laughing at her essay. Which I really wasn't, at that point. I'm not sure why I was. Maybe it was the tension in the room from not wanting to laugh. I dunno.
Oh well. They say laughing is a stress reducer. Hopefully I didn't scar her as bad as I fear.