I'm getting a better handle of what I'm meant to be doing at Roberto Clemente. My residency is organized by 826Michigan, a volunteer outfit publishing a book written by U.S. history students in two of Terry Carpenter's classes. The deadline is approaching, but much remains to be done. 826Michigan had success last year publishing a book by students at Ypsilanti High School called, How to Rise.
That book was the culmination of a year's worth of writing workshops in a pair of 12th grade English classes at Ypsilanti High School featuring memoirs, poems and fiction.
There is a wider disconnect with this group. They don't seem to grasp what they're involved in. I can't tell where the problem lies -- a lack of direction or student motivation? Roberto Clemente is an alternative school for students who are disqualified from their zoned high schools. They lack the grades or maturity, or have been removed for behavior problems.
Terry Carpenter has about 30 students in two U.S. history classes working on the project. Each student will ideally contribute at least one piece -- either poetry, personal narrative, rap or something else. Students have had several writing assignments over the last few months with the book in mind.
His second period is demonstrably slower and less focused. But much time is wasted in both periods corralling students and getting them to settle down. Our presence on Tuesdays may contribute to that. We four volunteers are there to edit their work and offer some guidance on their writing. Each student has been assigned a folder to hold their writing drafts and is given a laptop. (more on that later.)
By March, student work should be in final editing with a project wrap in May. I set out yesterday with the focused intent to help them get at least one assignment completed and edited. Their past assignments include a letter home from the World War I trenches, something from the Civil War, a character monologue from the Harlem Renaissance, a letter from the year 2020, and two others I can't remember right now.
For each assignment, the students were supposed to start with a hand-written draft, then proceed to a typed copy uploaded to Google Docs. They were to have it peer edited, then edited by one of the volunteers, then 'shared' it on Google Docs with either Mr. Carpenter or Katie, the project coordinator.
Yesterday, Mr. Carpenter instructed them to finish at least one assignment and upload to Google Docs. He passed out a checklist for students to mark their progress.The checklist was an ambitious start. Peer editing was quickly discarded as a viable step.
In the first period, some students took the next step to type up a handwritten rough draft into Google Docs. I worked with one student in particular to get her report from the year 2020 typed, edited and uploaded to Google Docs for final consideration. Most of my attention focused on a single student to make this happen.
Other students cannot seem to grasp Google Docs or retrieve forgotten passwords. And the laptops they are provided are far too distracting. Many surf the web or listen to music sites instead of typing anything (particularly in the second period). Watching this process for the last four weeks has been frustrating.
In the second period, they were told to finish the Harlem monologues they've been working on the last three Tuesdays. Less than a third were working on assignments. Many were playing music or surfing the web on their MacBooks. When I circled the room asking if anyone needed help, I was shrugged off. One of the students told an 826Michigan volunteer to go stand over someone else's shoulder. It was clear, especially in the second period, that many students hadn't started on their monologues.
How do you instruct students who don't care whether their work is published in a book or whether they pass or fail?Some students sit idly, and you wonder how to reach them. Are they simply immature or is there some deeper pathology at work? Then, what is my role as a middle-class, white volunteer -- and what complications does my presence create?
Last week, I tried to encourage a student with her head on her desk to consider why Paul Robeson was important to the Harlem Renaissance. Not only was he stellar athlete, but he was a civil rights attorney, valedictorian of Tufts University and the first African American to argue before the Supreme Court. While I was talking to her, I noticed a tear stream down her cheek. Was I pushing too hard, was she mad at a boy, or is she just 15 years old and pissed?
Yesterday, I was sitting next to a student in the library who stared at her computer for about 10 minutes. She didn't know where her writing folder was, nor had she started on her assignment. After my second or third inquiry as to how she wanted to get started, she got up and left. I saw her later by herself writing in a notebook, which I guess is progress.
Many of the students disappeared periodically from the library. Some of them hadn't returned by the end of the hour, their computers still opened and I guess their work unsaved on their laptops. I'm not sure if they will not get credit or just another extension. Clearly, I'm not their teacher and don't have any long-term sense of who will respond to assignments, encouragement, grading penalties, etc. Some of these students probably want to get back on track and into their respective high schools. Yet that also raises the question of what about the rest. To that, I'm not sure if anyone has an answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment