Sixth Grade Wonders: Drumbeat of Freedom, Unit 1 Week 2

 This Reading-Writing Workshop selection in Unit 1, Week 2 is a strong story. When I used it in a co-taught setting, though, I needed to add some more activities to allow for differentiation and some small group meetings. Over several years I added and refined these activities. Here they are, ready for you to use in your own classroom this year!

Speed Drill, Multiple Choice Questions, and Story Map

I still like using speed drills to increase student automaticity and fluency. Not only do speed drills help students to recognize words, but they also give us a chance to talk about word meanings that might be new for them.

I also wrote some multiple choice questions in the style of the questions used on the Weekly Assessments. These questions proved useful for small group work, as we could talk together about the questions and possible answers. Students are much more willing to share their thinking when talking to five others as opposed to talking with the entire class! For the Part A and Part B questions, I learned that some of my students really didn't know what to look for, and this allowed me to target instruction to help them with this.

Finally, I added a story map and list of events for students to work on. I really like giving students lists of events from a story to read and sequence. No matter what the age, this activity helps students to think about how a story unfolds. Students can also use the given events to help them write a short summary of the story, or create an illustrated plot diagram.

If you try these out, be sure to write a note and let me know!

Why You Should Teach Emily Dickinson's Poems in Sixth Grade

 In looking for poems to share with students, I love to go with the work of Emily Dickinson. Here's why!

Her life story is intriguing to students

Today's students find Emily Dickinson's life fascinating. Her reclusive nature and quiet life are mysterious, and counter to what many students experience. Teaching about Emily Dickinson helps students to consider how an author's life experiences impact their work.

Emily Dickinson's poems are great for teaching theme

Helping students to identify themes in poems and to write to explain those themes is a big task in sixth grade! Luckily, Emily Dickinson's more popular poems have fairly transparent themes. "If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking" and "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" are two that work especially well.

Emily Dickinson's poems appear on standardized tests

I know that this isn't a reason to teach a particular author's work, but the fact that Emily Dickinson's poems frequently appear on tests is important to me. I always emphasize to students that they should try to enjoy what they read on tests...and if they can recognize an author's name and meet the text as if they are greeting a friend, then that makes the testing experience much more pleasant for them. 

You can sing them!

I frequently torment my students by singing to them, and the poems of Emily Dickinson work really well for this. In "Crash Course," (which is a great resource for teacher background!) John Green sings Dickinson's poems to "I'd like to teach the world to sing," but I prefer to sing the poems to "The Addams Family." It works because of the meter of Emily's poems...and is also a great way to show students what meter is.

Ready to use resource

This spring, I made a hybrid resource for my students to showcase the life of Emily Dickinson. I like to have a weekly assignment for students to work on, and this resource includes activities for vocabulary, informational text comprehension, and poetry.

End of the Year Moments

One of the reasons why I decided to stay in fourth grade instead of transferring back to sixth is that end of the year fourth graders are such a delight. At the end of sixth grade, with approaching adolescence, the students are trying to make a break with childhood. For many of them, the best way to do this is to make a break with adults and adult authority. This makes the last few weeks a difficult time, to say the least. Just when we want to celebrate and recognize our students, they go and pick fights.

But end of the year fourth graders are another creature entirely. They have come through the difficult transition from third grade to fourth grade and emerged, self-confident and ready for the world. Abstract ideas that were once beyond them are now within their grasp. They have begun to understand that there is a world beyond their family, beyond their school, and they want to know more. They can now appreciate subtle jokes and gentle sarcasm.

The new maturity of fourth graders is a bit of sunlight in the gloom and doom world that I often create for myself at the end of the year. May and June are always times of great guilt for me. The units I haven’t covered! The papers I haven’t graded! The anguish of it all!

This week, I observed something that changed my thinking. A student was at the front, sharing a piece of work, when I had to help another student who was taking an assessment. It turned out that the student needed quite a bit of help. I took some time, working on the question, when I realized what was happening at the front.

The first student writer had finished. She had answered two questions from other students about her writing. Then she said, “Who else would like to share?” Another student came up to the front. I stayed at my desk, just to watch what developed. The student shared his writing and asked for questions or comments. Eager hands went up, and questions and comments (all related to writing!) flew back and forth. “Who’d like to share next?” the student said, and yet another student took his place at the front.

What a moment. I was at the back of the room, but the community of writers kept sharing, kept talking. The conversation had not strayed, the students had not sat there chattering as they tried to figure out what I wanted them to do next. I was no longer a necessary part of their sharing. They could do it all on their own.

So now, when the end of year guilt tries to overwhelm me, I think of that conversation. And I begin to realize that, despite all of my mistakes of this past year, a few things must have turned out right.