Epiphany in Baltimore

2002-02-26

Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com

Okay, so on Friday, I wrote a letter to my supervisor. She hasn't responded yet. I'm a little nervous.

First, the background:

The issue is Summer reading. The current system sees freshmen students having to read Of Mice and Men and Annie John over the summer. The work on it in the Summer Scholars program (a 2-3 day workshop for incoming freshmen to our school), and nearly all the kids have OMAM read before they come into school. About half of them have read Annie John (it's less accessible, isn't as good, and is more expensive for them to buy). I've had great success with workign with the summer reading books with my freshmen. I give objective tests checking to see if they've done the reading, and use OMAM to springboard a lot of discussions and writing skills that they'll be using all year. I'm still a bit lost as to what I'm doing with Annie John, but OMAM is an unequivocal success.

Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors do not have one or two specific titles to read. Instead, they are given a list of 50 titles, and told they have to read three of them. It's a good list, if I don't say so myself - a mixture of "classic" books (The Catcher in the Rye, The Invisible Man, Black Boy) as well as some contemporary pop-culture type books that are put there so kids will have something interesting to read (Harry Potter, a book by Terry McMillan). I like the list.

The thing is, there's really no good way of figuring out if the students read the books or not. Teachers have varying ways of doing it, and some don't do it at all. The latter was me last semester, but my excuse is that I was fairly clueless about summer reading at that point.

Therefore, you get into this system where some kids do it and don't really get credit for it because not everyone checks. Other kids don't do it, and face no repercussions. Other kids don't do it, and fail the first couple of essays and tests. It's bcause we're inconsistent as a department as to how we deal with summer reading.

Because I have had great success with Of Mice and Men this semester with my freshmen, I'm in favor of not only contuining the summer reading program, but expanding it so each class has one required text they have to read. Giving one book, rather than a long bunch of them, will make the kids know they have to do the reading. It also gives everyone in the class a jumping off point to begin class discussions.

Summer reading books should be such that they can be read without much guidance from the instructor, but are still worthwhile. They should also connect with the themes and skills to be discussed in the course.

Anyhow, there's a big controversy within the department about it right now. Some teachers want the system I proposed above. Others want to abolish it. Others want to make it extra credit. The latter two categories of teachers are frustrated because many students do not complete the summer reading regardless, and are stuck starting the year in a hole. I, on the other hand, am still young and idealistic, and had good experiences with the freshmen doing their summer reading this year. I want summer reading, and think it'll work if all the teachers really hold the students accountable for it - i.e. give an objective test over the book on the second day of class.

Anyhow, so we had a meeting last week about it. The meeting went okay. Most people disagree on the topic. Later, our department head wrote us a memo saying that we had reached a "consensus," and to come with summer reading titles in mind to our all-day staff meeting on Monday. Well, people are pissed because no consensus was met at all - we ended with everyone still disagreeing. Secondly, we're a bit confused because the curriculum should be set before we tack on summer reading titles to it, and the curriculum is rumored to be changing. The curriculum needs to be set before we begin adding on the summer reading titles.

So, I wrote a note to her. The note said basically the points that I just stated. First, that we didn't come to any sort of consensus at all. Secondly, that it doesn't make much sense to come up with summer reading titles if we're still not sure on what the curriculum was. I feel like I'm becoming more and more active in the department, so I was proud of myself.

But she hasn't mentioned it yet. And I'm worried. It was four days ago.

We shall see.

It's still a crazy busy week, and I get observed on Thursday. Today, I need to work on making myself look organized so I can go into my pre-observation meeting tomorrow and come out feeling good about what I'm about to do. I threw together a powerpoint presentation for today, so today's classes are going okay - despite how boring my "Paragraphs and You" presentation is.