Calling Roll: Antiquated Classroom Practice or Opportunity for Connection?

Block scheduling during pandemic teaching allows me a little more free time during the school day, so I like to get out of my room, off my screens, and take walks around the building. The other day, I passed by the open door of one of our newest teacher's classrooms. I could hear them calling roll. What are they doing? I thought. 

I haven't called roll aloud in years: once I have an established seating chart (determined by the students or me - it depends on the situation), I simply glance at who is in their seat and who isn't while the students work on something productive. Or in pandemic teaching, I rely on a Google Meet add-on to record who is present. Either way, I don't "waste time" calling roll.

But what if it isn't a waste of time. As the teacher called the students' names, I could hear the kids responding from the Google Meet. Hmmm, I thought. I have students who have been silent since the school year began. They might unmute if I call on them, but I don't make a habit of that because I don't like to put students on the spot. In an attempt to hear more voices, back in October, I did start calling on students to read our daily learning objective aloud. It's an expected, low-risk opportunity. I still give them an opportunity to "pass" but very few do. I also keep a record of who has spoken, so I can be sure to call on everyone.

But this idea of calling roll...it made me think of a couple of other teachers. I know of a math teacher who does an attendance question; essentially, she calls roll, but instead of students responding "here" or "present", they respond with their answer to a question. She did this pre-pandemic, and she continues now. Similarly, there is a Spanish teacher who poses a question at the beginning of class, and then calls on each student to respond verbally. She keeps a record as well.

I was just lamenting to a colleague yesterday that after this year, there will be some students I have no memory of: they don't speak on their mic, they don't turn on their camera, and they use an image for their profile - not a picture of themselves. All of these things are within their rights as a student, and I respect that, but I'm sad to think that I won't have memories of some of them in the future.

It's up to me to change that...

LAUNCHing the Notebook

I’m continuing my deep-dive into Chapter 10 (Writers’ Notebooks) from Randy Bomer’s Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s English Classrooms.

I’m feeling overwhelmed about how to launch the notebook in my classroom this year. I know from experience that it sets the tone for the rest of the year. As I read through Bomer’s three suggestions for getting the notebook started, I found myself wanting to incorporate all three.

1. Launch by teaching students that they have stories to tell
2. Launch by teaching students to be responsive to whatever is around them.
3. Launch by teaching students to write in order to think.

I realized that I have only ever utilized the first option, and perhaps that is why I have struggled with extending the writers’ notebook throughout the school year. I need to incorporate all three sometime in the beginning.

“Whichever launch a teacher chooses as the first lesson about writing in notebooks, there is almost always a need to reteach the same strategy for another class or two, and then move on to other forms of writing-to-think, so that students don’t define notebook writing as consisting exclusively of either memories, writing from the environment, or freewriting. Their notebooks will be more useful to their writing lives and the projects they will develop if they learn a variety of kinds of entries” (Bomer 172).

I made the mistake of having a one-trick pony notebook back in my Writing Methods course in college where I was lucky enough to have Dr. Bomer as an instructor. I remember receiving my notebook rubric back with a grade, and it was lower than I expected. It described how my notebook did not have enough variety in it, and when I looked back and reread my entries, I realized that it was a true statement. I’m so glad I experienced this because I will use this knowledge with my students as I teach them all the possibilities that their notebook holds.

Choosing a writer’s notebook for the new school year

Ever since I started teaching Language Arts, I have always had my students use a notebook. It’s looked different each year though. Some years it was a spiral, sometimes a specific spiral (Five-Star, 8.5 x 11), sometimes a composition notebook. One thing has remained the same though: I have always dictated a specific notebook that all students are required to use. In the spirit of change, I have decided that this year will be different: this year I will fully embrace students individually selecting their writer’s notebook.

I’m rereading parts of Randy Bomer’s Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s English Classrooms.

“Other teachers bring in an array of notebooks -- composition notebooks, sketch books, hardcover journals, and whatever else they can find -- with small and large paper, colored and white, fat and narrow lines --and ask students to handle the different types of notebooks and talk with a partner about which would best suit them each as writers” (Bomer 170).

This year I will be one of the “other teachers!” Here’s what I have so far to show my students. P.S. These are actually the notebooks I’m considering using this school year personally.

1. Composition Notebook

Technically this is the type of notebook that students will see requested on our school supply list. It’s a nice basic. It’s comforting. It’s a nice size: not too big, not too small.

2. “Assignment Notebook”

I love the smaller size of this notebook as well as the “date box” in the top right-hand corner of each page , and the built in pocket. I can see this appealing to many of my students. The portability is also a plus.

3. Graph Notebook

I LOVE graph paper, and when I can get it in a spiral notebook, it’s even better. I like to create tables and charts, and the light blue lines help me out.

I also have my tabs which I find really helpful for subdividing notebooks that only have one section.

In the past, I have dictated the kind of notebook students have used for a variety of reasons.

1. I’m a control freak when it comes to my classroom - I’m trying to relax my grip.
2. The physical notebook had always been THE place where we do everything for ELA. Now that Google Classroom and Drive are also a part of my pedagogy, I feel less of a need to control the physical notebook.
3. I thought I had to dictate the type of notebook for accountability purposes. How could I assign an amount of writing to students who were all writing in different size notebooks?

Randy Bomer writes, “Some students need something small, that would fit into a pocket, and finding that will make the whole difference in whether or not they ever carry it around” (170). This single sentence has been the biggest reason historically that I have dictated the kind of notebook, but I’ve decided to embrace this. So what if a student chooses to use a memo pad? If they genuinely use it, then we’ve already won!

#NotebookInquiry #YearOfChange @rbomer @HeartofTXWP

The State of the Teacher Desk

In a couple of weeks it will be all about the kids, so while I still have time to breathe, I’m going to ponder the state of my teacher desk.

Two years ago, after seeing one of my teacher heroes, Sheryl Rank, devise a stand-up teacher desk, I took the plunge and fashioned my own. I utilized an old IBM hand-me-down, black filing cabinet/storage shelf that has been floating around Grisham since the 1980s. This cabinet made an ideal stand-up desk when I turned it around to face me because I could utilize the shelves and filing compartments for my teacher materials. It was about 3ish feet long and about 4ish feet high. I loved that it didn’t take up too much space in my classroom and it forced me to pare down my teacher materials to a bare minimum.

A major reason  I got rid of my traditional teacher desk was because I found myself sitting at it way too much when I shouldn’t - i.e. during class : ( After the initial first week of standing behind my beloved cabinet, my legs stopped aching, and I loved my new-found stance. However, because I kept my laptop on top of the cabinet, I found myself standing behind my cabinet just as much as I had sat at a traditional desk! It wasn’t the furniture; it was the technology making me a not fully-present teacher.

As I prepare to move into my new classroom at my (brand) new school where I was discouraged from bringing old furniture to, what will I do without that cabinet? I know what the cabinet is doing: I willed it to Todd Stovall (another teaching hero). I’ve read in Joy Kirr’s Shift This how she turned her teacher desk into a student writing center. She filled the drawers with writing supplies - I love this idea, but… teacher desks are so big! I don’t want that behemoth in my room at all.

So I thought, I’ll make a stand-up teacher desk. I’ll design it and construct it in our school’s MakerSpace! Who am I kidding - I don’t have time for that, and I don’t know how to use power tools. My husband suggested I get a podium, but that’s not the answer. If I had a podium, I would just stand behind it and talk at the students.

Then I started thinking, do I need a desk at all? Is this the next stage of the progression? Stay tuned...

The Inquiry Begins: Physical vs. Digital Notebooks

What is the state of the writer’s notebook in the ELA classroom?

What are the consequences of a digital vs. a physical notebook?

I’ve always been passionate about the writer's notebook; in fact, I did my inquiry piece at my original HTWP Summer Institute on the notebook, specifically how to engender ownership of notebooks in my classroom with my students. Additionally, I place a high value on the (many) notebooks in my personal life. The notebook is the foundation of a writing life. In the digital age where it feels like things change faster than we can document them, I feel the state of the notebook in the ELA classroom bears exploration.

I intend to spend the next school year (and probably beyond) digging into this topic!

Why you should number everything in Google Classroom

I attended TCEA in Austin this year, and I’m still trying to unpack all of the learning that took place! Luckily I was able to hear Alice Keeler speak TWICE! If you’ve never read Alice Keeler on her blog or Twitter, start NOW! After attending two of her sessions, I feel a renewed enthusiasm for learning! Her posts are technological gold. The most earth-shattering thing I learned from her is also one of the simplest: number all assignments and assets in Google Classroom.

Numbering your assignments in Google Classroom leads to better communication with students and is a step toward a more student-centered classroom.

1. Better communication with students
1. It’s much easier to tell a student to get started on assignment #075 rather than the assignment that says to reflect on our Minecraft experience from yesterday. Use CTRL F to quickly search for an assignment number in Chrome.
2. Absences
1. By putting all of your class materials on Google Classroom and numbering them, students returning from an absence can easily see them in Calendar view. And the assignments are live links!
2. To access Calendar View in GCR, go to ABOUT, and select Calendar “View in Classroom”.

3. When students look up their assignments in our online gradebook, seeing the number, helps students quickly and easily identify which assignment is which.

2. More student-centered classroom
1. As students enter the classroom, their assignments are already displayed on the board. I can greet at the door while the students begin their first assignment of the day.

Using Google Forms to track behavior

Since everything is better in a Google app, I decided to track behavior this year in a Google Form. Mine looks like this:

Here’s why I’m loving it:

• It’s really quick and easy to log. When a student misbehaves, I can fill this form out in less than two minutes.
• It’s cathartic: instead of dwelling on the incident, once I’ve logged it, I can move forward, but I have a record to access when I need it.
• But it gets even better, the simple analytics that Google provides in the Responses helps me to reflect on my practices.
• When is misbehavior happening?

• What kind of misbehaviors are occurring?

*Sidenote: this data is skewed because some of my choices on my form disappeared for no apparent reason and had to be re-added…

• What am I doing to respond to misbehaviors and is my response making a positive difference?

• It’s also been helpful in team meetings to be able to bring up students I have concerns about because I have all the information in one organized place. Go to the Sheets in Responses and reorder alphabetically: now if a student has multiple entries, they are grouped together.

And of course I have this form saved in an easily accessible place on my bookmark bar: It’s the form represented by “B” for behavior. :

@gttribe #gsuite #GAFE