By Mark
The last few weeks I've been really busting my tail. A month or so ago, I noticed some major problems in my 10th graders' analytical writing. They were writing often, but only maybe once a week could I find time to give much feedback–and too often by the time I'd get the feedback returned to them, it would be just enough a delay as to be irrelevant to them. Even in the span of one week, some kids had forgotten they'd even done that writing I was handing back to them. I saw almost no skill growth from my feedback in their next writing sample. It's the same struggle I have every year and the same issue most teachers of writing encounter. Despite my feedback, the students would persist with the same errors in conventions, arrangement, and idea development.
However, these like so many problems I see in my learners' abilities to learn, are all problems I know how to fix.
So, as I tend to do every so often when I see a plateau in their writing ability, I've upped the practice ante. Every other day, they enter with a paragraph, which I take home, give specific and meaningful feedback, and return the next day. The kids then analyze my comments, compare their writing to earlier writing, reflect on their growth, and write goals for that night's writing assignment, which I collect the next day and return with comments…lather, rinse, repeat; fast, fast fast…
In the past, this same quantity of writing would have had to be stretched out over several weeks with gaps between assignments–mainly because it simply takes so much time to give that meaningful feedback to so many kids. Two class-sets of writing easily becomes three or four hours of work for me (not even considering planning, the other three classes I teach, and "other duties as assigned" as my contract calls it). Three or four hours of work for just two out of five classes doesn't always fit nicely in a single after-school evening, so it would often get strung out over several days. Because of that expanded timeline, the immediacy and relevance of my feedback was easily lost.
This more rapid feedback cycle has already shown tremendous results. After just the first few successive assignments, the rapid feedback, meaningful reflection, and immediate re-application of the target skill (to a new prompt and new situation) has resulted in significant and noticeable improvement with each successive writing task. They've seen the results too, and my homework turn-in rate is the highest its ever been, with several instances of 100% homework completion.
When they compare their first sample to their sixth…a mere two weeks later…the growth in conventions, arrangement, and idea development is astounding! I see it, but more importantly, they see it. If I continue this, I can be sure of a few things. I can be sure that my students' capacities and skills will soar. I am sure that they will get further as writers and thinkers than either I or they have ever imagined. We'll be able to get to depth of thinking and complexity of writing that I've never achieved with my 10th graders before.
And I'm quite sure my marriage will end and my children will become resentful adults with absent-father issues.
Cue the sad music, you say, the teacher-whining has begun.
Ultimately, though, I'm not whining about my personal life. I'm troubled that I even have to make the choice between being the teacher my students need me to be and being the husband and father to the three far more important people in my life. I know what my decision will ultimately be. Soon, I'll be scaling back on homework and feedback again, despite the growth I've seen in my students' learning. The rate of growth will plateau, forward movement will be less frequent and less dramatic. Those leaps and bounds I see presently will be replaced by baby steps and more frequent backward slides because of loss of momentum. There will still be net gains, but the gains will not be as great.
It seems like once or twice a semester I engage in this rapid "feedback cycle" for one kind of writing or another. Every time, without fail, the rate of their growth astounds me and I wonder how far they could get if I could just keep up the rapid pace. But I am working within the constraints of two finite resources: I simply do not have the time or energy to sustain it.
Train the teachers better, some say. Pay them better, others say. Decrease their class sizes, claim others still.
Honestly, though I appreciate all three, the one which I think would really make me a better teacher to my students is simple: Time. I need the time within my work day but outside my instructional time to examine their work, analyze their needs, and give frequent and meaningful feedback whose immediacy guarantees relevance and a spur in the side of learning. Other countries who outpace the United States in performance tend to offer slightly or significantly more planning and assessment time for teachers within their contracted day.
I do believe that teachers know what they need to do to impact student learning and fix the classroom ills we see. Here on this very blog, there has been criticism of teachers because we're not doing what we know will best serve kids: we're just not willing to do it. I don't disagree. I have found a strategy which has had proven results. But I am not willing to do it.
My dream: I will win the lottery. I will then be able to afford to drop my contract from 1.0 FTE to .4 or .6 FTE. But, I'll still want to be at school from 645am to 330pm, just like I am now. This way, I'll have two or three hours of instructional time, and the rest of my school day can be devoted to crafting immediate, meaningful feedback which the kids will get back the next day so they can build upon it. This way, I'll still have time in the evenings to be a good husband and father. I'll actually be able to continue with the practices that have proven most promising in promoting student growth…and all those practices involve time beyond the classroom minutes. When the time for that vital part of teaching is actually made part of the teaching day, I will not be asked to choose between my students and my family to find that time.
When I am forced into that choice, my answer will never be the choice society wants its teachers to make.
Note: I originally wrote a version of these same thoughts in November 2009 and have shared this with other colleagues via englishcompanion.ning.com as well, but thought this would be an apt conversation-starter for SFS!
About ten years ago, I had a chance to work with a teacher on an exchange from Spain. She was appalled at the working conditions we had. In Spain, she had one hour of prep time for every hour that she taught. In her eight hour day, she basically taught four classes and had four hours for correcting and planning. I was so envious! As a fellow English teacher, I always feel a certain amount of guilt that 1) I don’t assign more essays because 2) I struggle getting the papers back to kids in a reasonable amount of time.
Let’s do the math. It takes between ten and fifteen minutes to read a paper and given meaningful constructive feedback. I usually have about 120 students. That would be, at a minimum, 1200 minutes. And while my clock math isn’t great, I’m pretty sure that equals at least twenty hours if every goes smoothly. Say I’m already planned and prepped through Friday. For me to find twenty hours in a single week, to be able to have a one-week turnaround is almost impossible if I want to actually sleep and speak to my husband and kids…
Almost makes me want to move to Spain!
As another teacher/parent/spouse, I hear you. My husband is also a teacher, and we used to bargain for weekend work time. “I get Saturday morning.” “Okay, I get a few hours on Sunday.”
I’ve pretty much given up on that. I still take work home, but if my three-year old climbs up on my lap with a book, the essays are set aside. I care about my students – a lot – but my daughters outrank work in the evenings and on the weekends.
Would I do better with fewer students and more planning time? Of course! But sadly, the current reality is that there is no money for that. Like in the private sector, education is downsizing, and that means more work for everyone. As MikefromRI pointed out in another post, many teachers in charter schools are happily putting in more time for less pay. I’m glad they are, because that’s admirable and it’s good for kids. Given where I live, and the fact I’m supporting a family, it’s not something I can do, but I’m glad other teachers are able and willing to do it.
And you’re right. The 50 minutes of planning time most teachers get isn’t nearly enough to plan and evaluate. The thirty minutes before and after school are taken up with students, meetings, parent drop-ins and phone calls. There’s too much to do in the time we have to do it, unless we take work home. And, most of us do.
What impresses me is that many teachers put in those hours to do their jobs well, and to help their students improve. And what’s the payoff? Not a bonus. Not a promotion. Not making the sale. Not becoming a partner. Not winning the trial. Not getting elected. The payoff is that the students improve and society becomes a little more educated, a little more confident, a little more equitable.
Given that they personally gain nothing for taking work home, I’m impressed that any teacher does, and society should be impressed too. When teachers take work home and do it on their own time, they do it because they care about someone else’s kids. That’s pretty amazing.