Let's all pretend to be cows...

brought to you by Lori

• 
  
  Here in the great state of Texas, we've worked ourselves into a tizzy over persuasion. What is it? How do we teach it? How is it different from expository? Aren't those two the same thing????
  
  
  And even better...how do we help our kids understand persuasion? Well. I'll tell you...
  
  
  Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (D. Cronin).
  
  
  
  
  
  Please understand that I have 6 pull-out tutoring groups of retesters that need work with persuasion, so I've read this book aloud to a group of 11th grade students no less than 6 times. Plus once more to our lock-in bunch (that's a whole other post). Plus an additional once to Suzanne because she wanted to know how I used the book.
  
  
  The book is about some ornery cows who are cold at night and pretty much demand that stingy Farmer Brown give them electric blankets. When they don't get their way, they essentially shut down the farm. All of this is done through their typewriter and it's a very fun book to read. [Except when your office has very thin walls and the people next door in the sped office can hear you saying "click, clack, moooooo" again and again for what seems like a week straight and then they begin to look at you funny every time they pass by your open door or see you in the hallway.]
  
  
  Here's why it's great: since the cows' first attempt is an (udder) failure, you can have your kids pretend to be cows and re-write the letter to Farmer Brown using any persuasive structure you'd like.
  
  
  Persuasive Structure Option #1
  ·      I believe…
  ·      Other people believe…
  ·      I still believe __ because…
  ·      We should all (do? value? believe?)
  
  
  Persuasive Structure Option #2
  ·      I believe…
  ·      I believe this because…
  ·      I also believe this because…
  ·      Although,…I still believe…
  
  
  The sentence stems help the kids write Gretchen Bernabei-style kernel essays. If you’re concerned about the repetition, that is solved with small-group instruction and having kids read their letters aloud.
  
  
  Seeing my tutoring kids work with this, the most powerful part has been the reasons that they come up with. They cite reasons from decreased milk production to quality of life. The letters can be very funny!
  
  
  Working with picture books is always great fun, and even though I need a break from reading it, Click Clack Moo has now become a personal favorite.
  
  
  
  

My Shameful Secret

A few years ago, on the very last day of school, my students had finished their final exam and were preparing to walk out of the doors and into the glory of summer. One student hung back for a bit to say goodbye and thank me for the year. He said some really nice things, but one thing...this one thing I will carry with me for the rest of my life. He said, "you know...we read some pretty good stuff in here and we had some fun conversations, but I don't really know what I learned."

I don't really know what I learned?! What?! The nerve of this kid! How in the Hades can this kid tell me that he didn't learn anything? We read The Scarlet Letter, and I even made sure not to skip parts! We immersed ourselves in discussion of themes about isolation, deceit, and forgiveness. We read The Great Gatsby, the greatest of American novels. We talked about themes of greed, longing and desire, wealth and power. We read The Crucible, a canonized American drama favorite. We talked about McCarthyism and how the 1950s red scare served as a context for Arthur's Miller's work. We acted out scenes with a readers' theatre skit. We spent three weeks on it and ended with an exam that would have made my high school English teachers proud. What do you mean, you don't really know what you learned?!

And then later, I stopped and thought. In all of those things that we talked about, how many kids in my classroom were actually doing the talking? (Oh no.) In all of those themes that we talked about, how did I help grow my kids into stronger readers? (Oh no!) Of all of those books that we talked about, how many of my LEP students or my SPED students or my students who don't like to read felt included? Felt understood? Felt successful? Felt smart? (Oh. no.) 

Instant shame. Like I-can't-even-believe-I-just-told-you-that-shame.

That conversation with that kid years ago changed the course of my teaching philosophy. I don't ever want a kid to leave my classroom scratching his head and thinking what was the point of that? In order to change, I started small. I made a promise to myself that following year--years ago--that I would not make an assignment or activity that did not have a clear correlation to the TEKS. It sounds obvious and simple, but you my friend, as a teacher in the multi-layered world of ELA know what a challenge that can be. It's so easy to get caught up in plot. It's so easy to get caught up in the literature that we love. It's so easy to forget that the kids who are sitting before us don't think the same way we do. They don't love it the way that we do. And that's ok. It's so easy to just teach literature. To just talk about it. But it's so hard to teach the skill; to break it apart; to pull the small piece that you need so that your kids can walk out just a little bit smarter.

But if you do, maybe...just maybe...at the end of the year they'll tell you what they learned.