Discipline can be a big headache for me to consider, the thing that really gets me down. I spend many planning period hours troubleshooting or venting about discipline. While my classroom is under better control for the most part than it was last semester, there is still much to be desired. I plan on using much of the same system I use now but just being able to enforce consequences more effectively, firmly, and with greater confidence from the very start and through the long fall stretch. This plan may sound ambiguous, and it's perhaps a bit unlikely that I'll just suddenly be a more effective disciplinarian. However, I do think that starting out at the beginning of the year used to the sheer NOISE of sixth graders--all their grunts and complaints and crazed paranoia that every person around them is out to get them--will make me more capable to actually anticipate and deal swiftly with their issues. They are quite a needy group. How many times in a day do I hear "Can you tell him to stop looking at me?" "Can you tell him to stop tapping his foot?" "Can you tell her to stop blowing her nose?" I live in a world of "can you tell her" and "can you tell him" squealing eruptions, and it has changed the rhythm of my heart. Seriously. Medically. Emotionally. I hope that some day the rhythm of my heart corrects itself, but I don't count on it happening in the next year.
Key student behaviors to absolutely positively shoot down from the beginning include: talking back when getting a consequence, commenting on other students' consequences, calling out a response for another student who is taking too long to answer, ATTITUDE. Those are a few that immediately come to mind.
I didn't start this post wanting to talk about discipline, however. Two paragraphs ago I planned to say, "Discipline can be a big headache for me to consider, and I hate it. But when I think of ideas for planning a rigorous, stream-lined, structured, meaningful curriculum for next year, I get excited. Discipline sucks energy from my soul. Imagining students workshopping their writing replenishes." That's how the discipline conversation works, though. Once it starts, it's hard to kill the beast. What I really want to change, what makes me glow and skip is imagining being able to implement a weekly routine next year.
Monday: Focused freewrite. We preview and read an excellent passage together and discuss it for about 10 minutes before they do a focused freewrite on a specific topic from the passage. We've done this this semester with "Hair," "Where I Buy Candy," "Bullying," and "Sunday Mornings," just to name a few. Most of the students love it and actually write non-stop with little break for a solid 10 minutes.
Tuesday: Grammar and Mechanics Lesson. We'll do guided notes, guided, and independent practice. Pretty standard stuff. End with an MCT2 practice question on the topic we're covering.
Wednesday: Differentiated instruction day. Most of the time this will manifest as pair work based on Tuesday's lesson. I do really want to try out a class blog, however, where students can post assignment responses and read and respond on each others' work. I envision this happening on Wednesdays.
Thursday: Workshop of Monday's writing. We'll apply whatever grammar or mechanics concepts we learned that week to the freewrite they did on Monday.
Friday: Glorious assessments day. Show me what 'ya got. Hallelujah. This is school-wide.
I've started implementing this schedule somewhat this semester, and I'm starting to get in a real groove. I love being able to have a template for my week and not feeling like I'm starting from scratch with a new plan every week. I think the students like it, too.
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