Sun Protection

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!