I’ve had a lot of practice
wearing “many hats” for the greater good of my work/volunteering, but yesterday
was a new experience with a new set of hats.
I was both teacher and student at the MACUL conference.
My feet felt firmly planted in BOTH realms as I sat in on the sessions; so when
one presenter asked for a raise of hands from teachers, I raised my hand, but
later introduced myself to him as a student.
When he started showing student work and talking about dropping rubrics
and focusing on audience, my teacher ear perked up and I started thinking
seriously about what he was saying and how I could bring this in to my own
practice.
David Theune teaches high
school ELA at Spring Lake High School in West Michigan. He’s been teaching for
over eleven years and started focusing on “authentic audience” about two years
ago. His presentation, Friday Night Lights: Connecting with Community,
took us through his experience of giving less attention to rubrics, and more
attention to providing his students an audience for their writing projects.
Additionally, he shared a community engagement project he developed for his
students that I would love to bring in to my future classroom.
“Authentic Audience”
What does that mean in an ELA classroom? In many classrooms the
students write for the teacher, we call this “teacher as examiner” and it can
be problematic and difficult for students. We experience that in our grad
school classes regularly. We know how to write to the expectations of the
teacher and remain focused on meeting/exceeding those expectations rather than writing
the best and most appropriate paper based on the rubric. So, take away teacher
as examiner, and take away a rubric, and replace them with classmates or some
other audience who is not going to actually give a grade for the work. I
interpret David’s “authentic audience” to mean someone who will read/see/hear
student work for the sake enjoying the work, rather than with the express
purpose of assigning a grade. I want this for my students. I want them to
understand that there will not always be a teacher as examiner and that they will
find their future selves writing to varied audiences. That is not to say that
it isn’t important to know how write to that audience (college/job
applications/testing), but I think it is more important for my students to be
comfortable communicating effectively (written or verbally).
David told us that he felt rubrics were “forcing students to work
toward a minimum grade, not their maximum potential.” He dumped the rubric and changed to this
practice after seeing students give personal time and effort to extracurricular
activities like drama and sports - activities that do not earn a grade. He
noticed that students were forming relationships, building connections, and
collaborating in ways that he was not seeing in his classroom. He wanted to
start giving his students a tangible result for their work and found that an
authentic audience could do that for him. His students have produced work that
they have shared with students at other schools, narratives that they have
written and produced as videos on youtube.com, and other mediums. He admits
that some students struggle without the rubric and explains that he works with
those students during the one on one conferencing he does nearly each class
period.
David gave a brief description of a project he did with his
students that really captured my attention and imagination. Students are required
to write research papers and he decided to give his students’ research PURPOSE.
He had students research local non-profit organizations and write their papers
about the organization based on research they did both with Directors who
worked there and through other sources. While the students worked on their
papers, he worked with his local community foundation to secure grant money
that he would later give to the organizations researched by his students. The
final drafts were shared with their classmates and the non-profits they
profiled. The students then voted for three organizations to which they would
donate $350 each. He said there was a case where students made impassioned
pleas for their organization saying that $350 would “go further” at their small
organization than their classmate’s more established non-profit. I could
imagine this sort of activity in my future classroom. I want my students to
feel connected to their communities, to experience making a donation, and to
build an understanding of community engagement.
David Theune’s enthusiasm was contagious. It reminded me about the
excited conversations I had with my classmates this summer, when we were riding
high on the waves of our idealism. My excitement and idealism is alive and
well, albeit a little dormant as I feel burned by the sun that is teaching,
planning, and schooling. Spring is coming and I am re-awakening - my
excitement is brimming. I feel energized and hopeful!
