What are your plans for the final quarter? Not just checking off the standards!

I came across this short blog post on reflecting on your students and setting attainable goals for the final quarter of the year.   I like how she has identified four main goals and this will provide a guide during one of the busiest and craziest times of the school year.   Find one poem that speaks to you Read one amazing book that you must pass on to someone else Write something that makes you proud And have a deep conversation with someone face to face  What are your plans? Going Beyond the Standards by Pernille Ripp

I sat in my empty classroom on Monday, spring break just started, and looked at what I have to cover in quarter four of 7th grade English.  Great things, and yet...We need to get back to the basics.  Somewhere in the mad rush of trying to cover everything within the 45 minutes that strangle our English class, we seem to have lost touch with what English is really all about; amazing books, deep conversations, and writing, so much of it so that we lose our fear of being bad writers and just start to embrace the process.

So as I looked around at the empty chairs, I knew exactly what to do.  Monday morning we will start with a circle, a to-do list of dreams facing the students.  I will ask them to discuss expectations and rules, I will ask them about their thoughts on what the standards say we need to get to and then I will ask them this is this quarter to please

Find one poem that speaks to you

Read one amazing book that you must pass on to someone else

Write something that makes you proud

And have a deep conversation with someone face to face

Those are the opportunities that I need to create, those are the things that matter.  Beyond the standards, beyond what we need to cover.  We need to have incredible experiences in English, not just survive the last quarter.  What are your plans for after the break?