I am getting a C in English.

Specifically: a C in writing.

Which means I'm doing a lot worse than Ed, who is getting a B-. I'm also doing worse than our friend N., who told Ed, when they ran into each other a couple of weeks ago, 'I'm getting a B in middle school.'

On the other hand, I'm a couple of points out in front of the distinguished British historian.

She's getting a C-.

update: Ed now says she got a C+ and I "made it into a C- in my head."

We have a lot of these conversations.





my day and welcome to it

So yesterday, after spending all day at a funeral, I finally came home to a telephone call from Christopher's English teacher, Ms K. This is a different Ms. K, not the math Ms. K.

The English-teacher-Ms. K is a dedicated teacher who is paying attention, and is teaching real content. Spelling, grammar, handwriting (not trivial — we need it), and writing as a process of revision, topic statements, etc.

She's also a kind person who is wide awake as to the situation with Christopher and with us.

She was calling to tell me that Christopher had gotten a grade of 72 on his Book Share report, and had been visibly upset. He had put his head down on his desk, and she'd never seen him that way. So she wanted to call me, let me know, and talk about it.

That was great. It's above and beyond, and it's what a professional ought to do under the circumstances.

SO: my point is, I'm not having a problem with Ms. K-of-English. I'm having a problem with her grading, but not with her.





Book Share project

Here is Christopher's report.





What we have here is a failure to communicate

After a lengthy conversation with Ms. K, I don't know what's wrong with this paper.

What I mean to say is, I don't know what's wrong with it in Ms. K's eyes.

I know what I would think was wrong with this paper, if I were the teacher.

If I were the teacher, I would think the parent wrote it.

Ed said the same thing this morning, when he read. He said, and I quote, 'If I were the teacher I'd think this student had a lot of help.





so let's start there

I didn't write the paper.

Ed's take is right, however.

The paper is a hybrid. The ideas are all Christopher's, the structure is the teacher's, the pulling-it-all-together-into-a-coherent-form is mine.

Christopher came up with the thesis himself (unless his teacher taught this idea in class): he said, 'I call it a realistic fantasy story.' That is a terrific perception! I was so proud!

Christopher had to write this report Tuesday night, after being out sick for a week. He had a science test and a math test scheduled for the next day, too, and of course he'd missed all the classes covering the material that was going to be tested. Three massive projects to get through in one night.

We started with the Book Share.

Christopher sat next to my computer, I posted the list of required content next to my screen, and Christopher told me what he thought and put it into his own words. I suggested edits and more varied sentence structure as we went along.

I suspect this approach may be an effective way of teaching writing; I've done it before with other kids (not in this class or this school). Humans are observational learners, and this approach combines observational learning with doing....So I tend to think it's OK, in a pinch, to use this approach on a homework assignment. We were in a pinch. There was no way on earth we were going to get through one written report and two cram sessions in one night without doing it that way.

Long story short: this is more help than I would normally give Christopher, and more help than I've given him in the past.

Ed is right about what's wrong with this paper.

What's wrong is too much help from the parent.





what does the teacher think is wrong?

That's the rub.

I don't know.

She said two things specifically:


1. all paragraphs must have concluding sentences

me: That wasn't on the assignment sheet. I can have him write concluding sentences in all paragraphs, but I have to know you want him to write concluding sentences in all paragraphs.

teacher: It was on the other sheet.

me: I didn't see the other sheet. I can't keep doing this. I can't keep searching backpacks and notebooks for other sheets because What if This Sheet Doesn't Have The Whole Assignment?

teacher: I understand. I know you feel that way.

me: I can't go on like this.


Seriously.

That was the conversation. I am now having conversations with teachers in which I say, 'I can't go on like this.'


2. he needed to write a complete paragraph on the theme of the book

me: speechless


And that's it so far. I have no idea how he lost 28 points for not having concluding sentences in each paragraph and not having one full paragraph on the book's theme.

For that matter, I have no idea how any piece of writing can have a precise grade of 73.

I mean, what made it not a 74?

Or a 72?

I'm completely mystified.





did I mention I'm a writer?

So....we went round the mulberry bush a few times.

I said, in a non-hostile, non-rank-pulling tone, I'm a writer, I have a Distinguished Teaching Award, Ed's a writer, he has two Distinguished Teaching Awards (he's just been nominated for a third at NYU!), I taught writing to gifted kids at Johns Hopkins CTY, etc....and I said I just can't tell what she thinks good writing is.

I said I'm not quarreling with her view of good writing; I just don't know what it is.

I said professional writers don't have concluding sentences at the end of every paragraph, for instance.

She agreed.

Professional writers, she said, would not write the way she's teaching the kids to write.

She herself would not write the way she's teaching the kids to write in her own papers for graduate school.

What she wants, she said, is for Christopher to write the way an 11-year old writes in an English class, at this stage of the game.

This was not a veiled accusation that I had written the paper & not Christopher. I think she might have been saying that an 11-year old needs to learn a certain simple form first, before he tackles more sophisticated forms, the way you don't have an art student start with action paintings. He has to learn to draw first; then he can throw cans of paint on a canvas and make it work.

At least, it's possible she was saying that.

I don't know what she was saying.

She did say that it was very important for Christopher to learn to write the way she was teaching him to write, because he would need to be able to do it in 8th grade.^*





this isn't working, part 999

We left it that Ms. K would give me samples of 'A' papers.

She didn't want to do it.

First she said I shouldn't be thinking about grades.

I said If you're going to give the kids harsh, low grades on the work they do, then they're going to think about grades. If you don't want them to think about grades, stop grading them.

She basically agreed with that.

Then she said she had taught them, in class, what they were supposed to do.

She had told them, "A topic sentence is like an arrow hitting a target."

I said, 'I just don't know what that means. It's a nice analogy, it makes sense, but I just can't translate it to what that would look like on paper, to you.'

I said, 'We have to have models. We have to actually see what a good Book Share report looks like to you.

So then she tried her last tack, and said she really wanted 'just to work with Christopher directly.'

I said no.

I said, for about the 5 gazillionth time in the conversation, 'I can't go on like this.' (I also mentioned homeschooling several times.)

I said, "I want you to work with him, that's my preference, but we can't go on like this. We have to see models of what it is he's supposed to be able to do."

She said she would give us models, and she said she understood.





models t/k

So.

I'm going to take a look at the models Ms. K supplies, and see what's what.

I'm thinking there's a specific formua for paragraph writing that she wants the kids to master.

I'm thinking, too, that in this case 'report' actually means 'list of paragraphs.' Christopher did his last Book Share project completely on his own - we didn't even see it - and he got a grade of 86.

He wrote separate paragraphs answering each question individually. No thesis, no transition sentences, etc.

Separate paragraphs are fine, although he's capable of creating a simple organizational structure and of writing transitions between paragraphs and ideas.

It may be a good exercise to write highly formulaic paragraphs. I tend to think that once a child has shown he can write a simple paper, that's what he should do.

But I don't know.

So we'll see what the models look like and go from there.

But no more guessing games. I really can't live this way; more accurately, I won't live this way.

Ed worked on the CA social studies/history frameworks, and told me that a good framework (or was it standard?) tells you two things:

• what a child is expected to know