Topic Taught: English Grade Taught: 7th School: McCall (Public) Middle School, Winchester, Massachusets, USA # of Students: 115

Holly: Why do I teach? I guess I teach because I really love to read and learn new things, experiment and play with ideas ... and I want to help other people have the same fun that I do from it. So that's one reason that I do what I do.

I think that a lot of kids .. I don't know much about private schools ... but a lot of kids in my school ... think school is a drag .. it's a place where they are just bossed around ... and a place where bells ring ... we don't have bells ... but we might as well have bells ... and they go to another class ... and they stuff them with knowledge that ... they don't really care about.

ALPS: What are they going to get from that experience? Why do you want them to get that feeling? And how does that relate to what happens to them in the future?

Holly: Because a lot of the way they get it is by deciding for themselves what they want to learn, and they learn to develop their own tastes in reading, and their own voice in writing. And so they learn who they are. That way, they can make better decisions and their own decisions ... about what they want to do with their lives ... instead of just doing what other people tell them ... like their parents or their teachers.

This is all very abstract, but ...

ALPS: So how do you do that in a classroom? Is that an explicit focus?

Holly: You mean do I actually say this to them? No, I never really actually have, but I think they can tell ... because right from the beginning I try to convince them that this is a place where there is at least one person that is interested in them. Like the first thing I do is learn all their names. Now that sounds very simple, but I remember being twelve and being so upset when someone got me mixed up with another kid, or they didn't even know my name. So I learn their names first.

And then I just try to make it a cozy place where they feel comfortable and they can be themselves.

ALPS: When do they get a sense of what the class is all about? Is there a point at the beginning of the year where you say, like, "This is what this class is all about."

Holly: Oh yeah, we start off with the Throughlines.

I have them up on the board, so the first thing they see are these big questions.

We talk about them. And then I actually have them answer the throughline questions as their first assignment. So, that's the first thing they do. So they know right away, I tell them, that whatever we do is always going to be connected to those throughlines. And they're mostly English things like,

• How are reading and writing connected?
• How do elements of a piece of writing work together to make a whole?

• What is a hero?

And then there are more affective things like ...

• How can people best work together?

  And ...

• How can I make my work better?

And we start with a journal ... and maybe the journal also helps ... I don't know.

I tell them that's the only way I am going to get to know each one of you, because I have a 115 of you. So that's how I get to know each one.

Pictures of Practice Contents Introduction The Colonial Biography Unit (7th Grade History) A Year of Seventh Grade English A Year of Eighth Grade Science The Jazz Unit Snapshot Using the CCDT to Develop Generative Topics