School board commissioners praised the school for its commitment to providing a rigorous academic experience for all students, most of whom will be the first in their families to attend college.
Several students, parents, and teachers spoke out in favor of charter renewal and wrote letters of support. Special thanks go to Executive Director Elizabeth Rood, who spearheaded the campaign for charter renewal.
I think I’ve figured out the starkest difference between my students and those who perform better academically.
My students don’t always turn in their assignments.
I’m not talking about little assignments, like classwork. In fact, my students work harder in class than many suburban kids.
No, I’m talking about essays, projects — big assignments.
When I collect AP practice essays every other Thursday, I typically receive 21 or 22 out of 23. There are always one or two excuses, one or two emergencies, one or two instances of things coming up.
Some teachers would call this turn-in rate a success. I don’t. After all, students have several days (and many opportunities of support) to complete their essays. In addition, my students are just a few months away from enrolling in college, and as far as I know, if you don’t turn in assignments in college, you generally don’t pass classes.
I’m really worried that many of my students will receive Fs next year because they haven’t internalized how crucial it is to turn in all their assignments on time.
The problem is, They’ve missed assignments in high school and have gotten by. Their teachers have offered them deals. Some teachers, citing standard-based assessment, don’t give zeroes for missing work.
I understand that things happen and that students need extra chances, particularly in the earlier grades. That’s why our Humanities department last year agreed on a late work policy that becomes more strict from ninth to twelfth grade. (This year, the policy was suspended by the administration.)
Whatever the approach, we need to tell our students how important it is to follow through, to honor their commitments. Life moves forward, and in general, you can’t get on a time machine to correct your past mistakes.
Reading has officially caught on at my school. The combination of choice, high-interest books, and an extensive Kindle library has propelled some students to a dangerous new pastime: Reading While Walking, also known as RWW.
Our school hallways were already precarious even before this new phenomenon. To navigate the crowds, you sometimes need the skills of a running back or a slalom skier.
But RWWers have taken a different approach:
1. Stick out your book or Kindle at arm’s length.
2. Read your book.
3. Walk slowly and deliberately, as if you’re a zombie.
The zombie description isn’t way off, actually. After all, these RWWers are definitely in The Reading Zone.
Unfortunately, I haven’t yet captured any RWWers on camera, but I hope to snap a few photos soon. Until then, I will say that Reading While Walking occurs more often in boys than girls.
Their favorite books right now? Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian and Reymundo Sanchez’ My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King.
Plus, it helps to be tall and strong — so if you bump into someone, you don’t fall over.
Experiences that are routine in middle-class homes are not for P.S. 142 children. When Dao Krings, a second-grade teacher, asked her students recently how many had never been inside a car, several, including Tyler Rodriguez, raised their hands. “I’ve been inside a bus,” Tyler said. “Does that count?”
When a new shipment of books arrives, Rhonda Levy, the principal, frets. Reading with comprehension assumes a shared prior knowledge, and cars are not the only gap at P.S. 142. Many of the children have never been to a zoo or to New Jersey. Some think the emergency room of New York Downtown Hospital is the doctor’s office.
Therefore, teacher Dao Krings takes her students on field trips to places considered mundane to most. They build prior knowledge by looking at signs, reading parking meters, and visiting public garages.
After all, it’s much easier to understand a story involving a car ride if you’ve been on a car ride.
At the end of the article, however, Winerip writes that some teachers and principals do not consider the field trips worthwhile, especially because they take a lot of time. I see their point. But the alternative that many schools have adopted — more test prep — doesn’t work to build prior knowledge. Test prep assumes a shared experience.
Field trips may be costly and cumbersome, but they’re a great way to help students connect what they know to what they read.
Another option? Lots of voluntary reading and lots of conversations. If students read voluminously and then share their knowledge with their peers, the whole classroom builds its prior knowledge.
I’m happy to announce that my students continue to choose excellent books to read on their Kindles. Here are the latest five books added to our classroom e-book library.
1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
2. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
3. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
4. Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer
5. Matched, by Ally Condie
Thanks to generous donors, I was able to purchase these titles immediately. Thank you so much!
These books will now be available to all my students on our classroom’s 12 Kindles. And they’ll never get old, worn out, or lost!
If you’d like to donate books to our classroom e-book library (or know someone who does), please click on the ChipIn! button on the right sidebar.
Leadership High School’s charter was renewed tonight for the next five years by the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education.
