Persuasive Writing

This week, my classes have been learning to write persuasive compositions. They're all pretty good, or at least think they are, at getting what they want, so they're falling into this style of thinking/writing quite naturally. Really, I'm super proud of their efforts and improvement and happy to see results of the changes I've made to my writing instruction this year thanks to a super amazing curriculum coach.

I'll be out of the classroom tomorrow and didn't really feel like writing a lesson plan, so I came up with a creative and/or manipulative way to get maximum student effort/output today with minimal effort/output for me this evening. Hence the time to write about said manipulation.

After writing for 90 seconds on three topics [see attachment], attempting to increase words written with each interval [yes, I take a workout mentality into the classroom as well. Exercise for the brain?], I told the students that those three topics would be the 3 key points they would use to write a paragraph persuading me to allow them to have a movie day tomorrow. We worked as a class to develop an organized outline with individualized elaborations, examples and evidence of each key point and then I let them loose to try and persuade me. If the assignment wasn't completed or following our "Persuasive Writing Guidelines" in order to truly convince me they were worthy of the potential and illustrious "Movie Day", they were threatened with working on a 4 page study guide in a 'Buddy Class' instead. Obviously, I was banking on them all completing the assignment correctly because lord knows I didn't want to be typing up this alleged study guide. Fortunately, they were WAY into it, and this assignment resulted in some absolute gems as far as entertainment value. I'll just attach the pictures and let you discover for yourself. See if you can spot which student was experimenting with a thesaurus....I adore adore adores these kids, perfect paragraph structure or not.

You will probably have to enlarge the screen for the full effect....

It's not you, it's me.

A friend of mine called my attention to the fact that my blog postings are, although thoughtful and interesting[thanks Jenn;that was generous!], few and far between. I wish I could excuse this sparsity with being busy, which is partially true, but there are other factors at play which I need to do some work on. Namely, my low supply of intentionality and reflection in my practice. Both of the latter were, almost, the sole purpose of starting this blog to begin with.The other, public forum, side of blogging is just good for accountability and openness; I like being able to share my heart and passion with those close to me. The fact that I don't often blog is actually indicative of the fact that I don't often reflect on where I am at in my motivations for and practice in teaching. We'll leave how it mirrors my ability to be open with those close to me for another day.Now, onto a little introspection...

Last week I was convicted again in my belief that you get back what you put out as far as energy, vibes, what have you, in the classroom. What I had been getting back for a stretch of a couple weeks was a lot of attitude and only a little motivation. Following the belief stated above, you can guess what I had been putting out. Looking back, it has been a go-to pattern of mine to revert into a routine of 'going through the motions' when I feel busy or overwhelmed externally and internally. That's okay I suppose, but I can't expect the same returns as when I am giving 110% and staying connected to the heart of what I want to do in these students' lives. A week ago I found myself feeling frustrated and annoyed that the positive dynamic we (my students and I) had going had seemed literally to have left the building. The sad thing is, I was annoyed with my students first. Blaming them, and honestly, even some of their parents for undesirable behaviors and patterns rather than taking responsibility for the only variable I can actually control in the equation, myself. When I made this mental switch and 'stepped my game up' things almost immediately turned around. I had two of my best teaching days this past Thursday and Friday. This was mostly because I planned lessons and supporting activities intentionally and I took responsibility for making sure that I was providing a positive environment for them to learn in through my words and actions. They deserve that and I'm called to that standard. I'm sure I'll slip many times to come in this area, but hopefully not for weeks at a time again. If my students were aware of this at all, I'd like to apologize to them and say the classic line a bit out of it's usual context: it's not you, it's me.