Starting Over in 7th Grade
I've been in the education field for almost 20 years, but in the classroom only about 11. Five years ago I took a position as a 7th grade math teacher. For the first few yeas we had no curriculum and were expected to build everything from scratch.
Holy smokes starting a new grade after being out of the classroom for 7 years and creating everything from scratch is tough. Especially in a school/district renown for it's constant change. I thought, shoot if we could just get a decent curriculum we'd be great.
I should have been more specific. The school choose an opensource curriculum known for it's rigor. Personally I hate it. Not nearly enough concrete work. I struggled each day trying to get through the lesson and keep the students engaged, while they struggled to understand something speaking in a language they can barely understand.
So this year I went back to building my own curriculum, not completely from scratch. I will still use the content in places, but starting in a more relevant area for the students. I know many of my students struggle with basic math facts. I know 7th graders who aren't automatic with something as simple as 3 X 2 is crazy right? Well it happens. So we are starting with area. We are just practicing multiplication, but we don't realize we are practicing multiplication. Of course two weeks in and I still have students asking if they can count the boxes, but we are getting there.
In years past I would start homework with a couple of days of multiplication, then division, and fractions. Just to get the practice in and then homework was relevant practice to what we learned in the classroom. Not this year. Homework has been almost nothing but multiplication practice. Which has actually been good in that most of my students are returning homework everyday.
So everything is multiplication multiplication multiplication. I really thought we would move quicker through this, but I have a few students who are really struggling. I know this because starting with area, a skill 7th graders should have learned 2 years ago, allows me to work in groups and about half the students are able to work independently. Now my group work is actually starting to function and I can get to those struggling students and get to know them.
I've also changed my focus on group work. I've always wanted group work and quick presentations, but I've never been able to achieve that. So many students have refused to speak or discuss or risk an wrong answer. I started the year with a classroom saying,
The school also bought me a couple of vertical non-permenent writing surfaces, whiteboard easels. This combined with the familiar work means students are happy to take risks and write stuff on the boards in full view of the entire class. Then they share because everyone can already see what they wrote. Plus they have looked around the room and maybe changed an answer a time or two, or their answer matches a few other answers, even if they aren't 100% perfect.
The year is starting better than before, but 4 weeks in I see I am started to get caught up in the usual drama and its time for a restart. Mostly what is happening is a few students who enjoy drama are starting to feel comfortable and are attempting to derail the classroom. They don't really do it on purpose because they want to mess up my teaching, they tend to do it because they need to slow down learning, or call attention, or some other need. It is time for me to regroup and stop falling into these traps. Now I just have to figure out the best way to do that.
If you have suggestions I'm open. I know I can write a few behavior contracts, but in my experience many of these students will break them before the ink is dry because they know I'm not really organized enough to be consistent and calling them out for minor transgressions. I can write referrals and send them to the assistant principal, but that takes away my power in the classroom. I need something that allows me to teach and not be a constant behavior guard, and also helps some of these students learn to monitor themselves. Anyhow whatever suggestions you have are much appreciated.
Holy smokes starting a new grade after being out of the classroom for 7 years and creating everything from scratch is tough. Especially in a school/district renown for it's constant change. I thought, shoot if we could just get a decent curriculum we'd be great.
I should have been more specific. The school choose an opensource curriculum known for it's rigor. Personally I hate it. Not nearly enough concrete work. I struggled each day trying to get through the lesson and keep the students engaged, while they struggled to understand something speaking in a language they can barely understand.
So this year I went back to building my own curriculum, not completely from scratch. I will still use the content in places, but starting in a more relevant area for the students. I know many of my students struggle with basic math facts. I know 7th graders who aren't automatic with something as simple as 3 X 2 is crazy right? Well it happens. So we are starting with area. We are just practicing multiplication, but we don't realize we are practicing multiplication. Of course two weeks in and I still have students asking if they can count the boxes, but we are getting there.
In years past I would start homework with a couple of days of multiplication, then division, and fractions. Just to get the practice in and then homework was relevant practice to what we learned in the classroom. Not this year. Homework has been almost nothing but multiplication practice. Which has actually been good in that most of my students are returning homework everyday.
So everything is multiplication multiplication multiplication. I really thought we would move quicker through this, but I have a few students who are really struggling. I know this because starting with area, a skill 7th graders should have learned 2 years ago, allows me to work in groups and about half the students are able to work independently. Now my group work is actually starting to function and I can get to those struggling students and get to know them.
I've also changed my focus on group work. I've always wanted group work and quick presentations, but I've never been able to achieve that. So many students have refused to speak or discuss or risk an wrong answer. I started the year with a classroom saying,
"I give myself and others permission to make mistakes."Then I reiterated on a daily basis that we would work in groups almost everyday and someone from each group would be expected to share what the group talked about and it couldn't be the same person everyday. Then we did it. At first with the start of school expectation lessons that lasted two weeks. then with math. It's actually worked. Students share and it's not always the same person. Though I've noticed it slowing down in the last week so time for a reminder. My focus switched from making sure students have mastered this new skill in math to making sure students are comfortable sharing with the class.
The school also bought me a couple of vertical non-permenent writing surfaces, whiteboard easels. This combined with the familiar work means students are happy to take risks and write stuff on the boards in full view of the entire class. Then they share because everyone can already see what they wrote. Plus they have looked around the room and maybe changed an answer a time or two, or their answer matches a few other answers, even if they aren't 100% perfect.
The year is starting better than before, but 4 weeks in I see I am started to get caught up in the usual drama and its time for a restart. Mostly what is happening is a few students who enjoy drama are starting to feel comfortable and are attempting to derail the classroom. They don't really do it on purpose because they want to mess up my teaching, they tend to do it because they need to slow down learning, or call attention, or some other need. It is time for me to regroup and stop falling into these traps. Now I just have to figure out the best way to do that.
If you have suggestions I'm open. I know I can write a few behavior contracts, but in my experience many of these students will break them before the ink is dry because they know I'm not really organized enough to be consistent and calling them out for minor transgressions. I can write referrals and send them to the assistant principal, but that takes away my power in the classroom. I need something that allows me to teach and not be a constant behavior guard, and also helps some of these students learn to monitor themselves. Anyhow whatever suggestions you have are much appreciated.
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