There is this phenomena in life that we all bare witness to everyday. The concept of aging/maturing/evolving. It is a beautiful thing. However sometimes the three do not go hand-in-hand (in- hand?). That is to say, age does not necessarily make you mature, nor does it mean you have evolved. It is a myth to believe that aging brings with it maturity, just as it is a myth to believe that grades signify knowledge/intelligence/wisdom. SO often we leave aspects of school behind because "you are too old for that." Like parent/teacher conferences; why is it that when we get passed 5th grade it is no longer beneficial for them to communicate with our teachers face-to-face twice a year? Recess, why is it that after 5th grade we can not go play out side for a 20 minutes? It seems to me ADD and obesity could both be aided by implementing recess or some sort of rec/outdoor time in the upper levels. The list is so long; for instance, snack time, nap time, play time, drawing, music, singing, show and tell, start time, the list goes on!
At some point in our aging, we forget that school, or more importantly learning, is fun. Because we stop letting our students lose themselves in activities and creativity and showering them with praise, and we start implementing structure. Rules. Rubrics. Standards. Before you know it kids do not have time for learning, only doing. They are not readers, they do reading. They are not writers, they do writing. Just like the do sports, music, drama and student government. This is not to say kids do not still get enjoyment out of these things, but they do not associate the joy they get from fully engaging in something, with school.
Point in case, today I had a conference with a girl in my Hunger Games class. This girl is a real character. Funny, outgoing, athletic- just a well rounded good student. She always tease me about being an "English Nerd" and tells me how much she hates english and precedes to list all the jobs she would rather do than be an English teacher ( things like garbage man, janitor, shovel man at the zoo). So I'm conferencing with her about the book today and she tells me she finished it in two days. She then asks me if I have any recommendations about similar books and begins telling me all the books she has read that she likes. The list is endless. When we were done I said "I thought you hate English? you sound like a pretty big English nerd to me?" She said "ewww i do hate English, I just love to read."
There are plenty of reasons I could point to for this very common reaction to school, but the lack of joy in teaching/learning is a huge contributer. In my other classes I'm teaching A Midsummer Night's Dream. Which I love, and I think is an excellent play to use for middle schoolers who are reading Shakespeare for the first time, because it's fun and humorous. So today we talked about Shakespeare's use of verse and rhythm among certain characters and what sorts of emotional and cultural cues we can pick up from it, sounds fun huh? Well to do this I brought in Dr. Seuss books and the kids gathered around me on the floor (just like they used to do) and I read them the story, showing pictures, asking questions, using funny voices etc. The loved it. Then we wrote lines from the book on the board and clapped them out as as a class. From here, we wrote in our journals about why we used to love Dr. Seuss and why today we still love him. Eventually we got to rhyme and rhythm and from there, we jumped into the play.
Now just in writing this all down in this post I realize it seems like I took the long way, but here's the thing: I don't care how long it takes me to get somewhere, as long as my students are with me, and better yet, guiding me to the destination. Because just like that girl from the story above, most of my students don't want to be ENGL majors (yet!) but by losing themselves in the joy of reading, the kind of joy only a child can truly know, they finally stop doing, and start learning.
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