Grading English Essays in a Jesuit High School - What I Learned From My Students Last Sunday Morning2/27/2021 Amidst the aftermath of a snow that forced us to pivot to remote learning and interrupted schedules and within the context of an on-going pandemic that has caused our students and faculty to experience the inevitability that is unpredictability, today is a day for hope. I sat down this morning, after sufficient procrastination (disguised as creative incubation), to finally grade a set of student essays. Fun, right? What I walked away with is renewed sense of my students’ resilience and my why for teaching in a Jesuit high school. Through their actions and essays, my students animate the Ignatian charism that we model in school. This, too, is also an important reminder: when I look for positive things, I find positive things! Here is what my students are teaching me. Context: The Magis - Continuous Quality Improvement Today my students are better than they were in August. They have successfully pivoted in very difficult circumstances. They are resilient amidst the trauma they experience. They are becoming . . . more mindful readers, more thoughtful conversationalists, and better writers. For us all, it is progress . . . not perfection. But, as an English teacher, there are few things more fulfilling than to accompany and witness students working to or above their potentials, forming new habits, and improving by simply putting in the work to practice the skills they learn in the context of an environment that is accepting and safe. Context: Finding God in All Things In one essay, a student writes in reference in Walt Whitman, “This passage from Whitman’s writing reflects the Ignatian belief of recognizing God in everything . . . .” This student successfully links the course content (Transcendentalism) to specific mission-driven language and ways of knowing – an Ignatian worldview – with only subtle judges from me. Often, students make the most essential connections between content in the class to our overall school’s mission and philosophy – then practice the skills to communicate those connections. Context: Ignatian Indifference In one essay, a student writes, “Being non materialistic is a good transcendentalist quality. Being non materialist means that one isn’t concerned with material possessions. But to me it means not having any special ties to objects.” Wow! St. Ignatius’s First Principle & Foundation challenges us in this area: “We are to use the things of this world only to the extent that they help us to this end, and we ought to rid ourselves of the things of this world to the extent that they get in the way of this end. For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things as much as we are able” (First Principle & Foundation). This student is learning a lesson tied directly to the lessons that St. Ignatius learned (then teaches us). Experience, Self-Reflection & Gratitude Each day, we begin class with two minutes of silence. This is time to quiet ourselves, empty our minds, and pay attention to our breathing . . . all in the hopes of entering into English class open and prepared to learn. In his essay, one student is perhaps unconsciously using meta-cognition to reflect on his own experiences, which are similar to our two-minutes of silence when he writes, “Taking a deep breath is like taking in inspiration for something, and then it processes in the mind where it creates something new and original, just like air in the lungs.” When I read his lines, I actually practice what he is saying and I recall the habit of pause that we practice at the start of class. Another student reflects, “The pandemic has been humbling in the sense that nature is truly cleansing (us) from digital burdens today. I became aware of how thankful I was for just having a backyard to go into and forget about material things.” And another student reflects on his experience of the desire to be in solitude, in nature. “We talked through swamps, bamboo, along a lake and more, but one thing bugged me when I was there. I wanted to take my time and walk around the park slowly, so I could see everything and all my sister was doing was complaining . . .” When given the time and space, students desire to be contemplatives and they succeed at reflecting on their personal experiences, with an attitude of gratitude. Action: Thinking & Acting in New & Different Ways In response to my request for students to predict their essay grades, one student reflects, “B/A (I don’t know, I can do better).” When students are honest about themselves and their efforts, they are practicing a virtue far greater than any skill we learn in any English class. In an essay, one student writes about the most beautiful personal experience example. “We don’t always need new things when we can find old things for cheaper or even free that gets the job done and will help you. This takes me back to remembering my first bike. My first bike was something that helped more learn how to ride one. I had to ride this old bike that had been ridden multiple times before me. I didn’t want to ride it. It wasn’t perfect. It was old had been used a lot and had even passed from person to person. But it got the job done in teaching me how to ride a bike. Instead of getting a new bike for me, my parents just used an old one we already had to teach me how to ride a bike. The bike didn’t have to be new to get the job done . . .” The student is not only reflecting, but also coming to a new way of thinking and acting in the world. Another student writes his truth, “I had to show self-reliance when both my parents and my sister had COVID-19. For these two weeks, I had to step up for myself and do things on my own that I am not used to doing. I had to cook dinner for myself, clean the house and disinfect everything myself, do my own laundry, and go get groceries.” Finally, one student reflects about his music class, “The last time I thought differently or originally was when I mixed two songs that sounded really good together and no one else through of it before. It felt weird coming up with a new ideas that no one had thought of. I felt proud of myself for discovering something new and forming a new way of thinking.” When students get real by connecting their personal experiences, ideas, believes, truths, and contexts with what we study and life outside our classrooms, they are authentic and true to themselves, all the while showing they know the material by internalizing it and making it real and relevant to their lives. Self-Evaluation One practice I employ with students after they write and revise essays is to challenge them to reflect on the essay requirements and rubric, then “slap a grade” on their final essay that they turn in – predicting their grades. As we get further and further into the year, their essay grade predications become more and more accurate. Students accurately self-evaluate – when their self-assessments align with the guides and expectations we talk about and are in rubrics – and the class comes closer and closer into alignment in expectations, skills, & content. Last night I participated in a Zoom book club, where we where I referenced a specific quote that my students show me every day and that continues to be focus for me as a teacher: “We will always be students . . . we remain teachable and open to new opportunities, and we open our minds to accept and our hearts to understand” (Bill P.)
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Pete MussoAssistant Principal, Curriculum & Instruction Archives
May 2022
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