Visiting Rafe Esquith, Part II

**Note: if you missed reading the first part of this series, scroll down and read it first for the context, then come back to read this entry.

7:59 - 9:35 Mathematics

Rafe begins class on this Monday gradually, with students getting their materials and desk areas ready for the day. He greets the remaining students as they come in the door, asking about the health and weekend social life of his 10 year olds. Rafe has a voluminous DVD library that students check out titles from on the weekends. I see one student take out "West Side Story," a laminated page of comprehension and reflection questions about the film and a one page response to them, which she gives to a class clerk to collect.

Rafe is reviewing fractions with the students. Many teachers see a dichotomy between their responsibilities to prepare students for real life and to prepare them for the standardized test. Rafe addresses both with the seeming ease of his 27 years of experience. Writing 3/4 along with .75 he asks, "When would we use this in real life?" Students respond that they'd use .75 with money, and Rafe volunteers that he'd ask in baseball, "3/4 of you go in the infield, the rest go to the outfield." Rafe emphasizes to me that the children need to grasp the why of what they're learning if they're going to buy into what you're telling them.

Test-taking Strategy

A few minutes later, Rafe is making a test item on the board to express ".040" as a fraction. He's got
"A
B
C
D"
lined up, and then asks a student to give him the correct answer AND WHY.
A
B
C 40/1000 (because it is in the thousands place)
D
Next he asks students to suggest alternative answers that could be on the test and why someone might incorrectly think its the right answer. One students offers "4/10, because someone might think that the 4 is in the tenths place" Another gives, "80/2000, because it isn't simplified yet". When you get test takers to think like test makers, then you're teaching decision making skills that will help students to master something that few teachers like, but all must admit is a reality we need to prepare them for.

Motivation

As students do independent work, Rafe comes back to the corner to talk with me. He would do this several times during the day. [As my own mentor teacher Natalie Bernasconi tells me, the most valuable thing you can give someone is your undivided attention. I'm honored that Rafe gave me such a valuable gift.] We talk about the motivation factor, my focus for inquiry and reflection for the year. After 25 years at Hobart, Rafe has established a reputation that precedes him. I spoke with a students who'd entered Hobart as a first grader with the hope that she'd be in Rafe's class in 4 years. But there are other students who haven't "bought into the whole school thing" and become motivated by the constant stream of returning students who visit room 56. Finding themselves unchallenged in middle school when they leave Rafe's class, some of Rafe's past students come for Saturday sessions of enrichment. Before such a reputation and returning stream is established, teachers need to help their students grasp the thought that, "If I do/learn this, my life will get better."

Language Learning

As this is a language teaching blog, I'll mention some of the ways that Esquith works with some of his ELL students to comprehend material. He mentioned to me in our back-of-the-class conference that 6 of his students came to him with reputations as "unteachable" by their previous teachers. "I think I've turned three around, two not yet, and 1 I don't know about." Esquith emphasizes that the class culture he establishes is fundamental for why his group of 34 students can accomplish so much in a year.

-Error correction is an issue in second language teaching. I notice on several occasions that Rafe will give a direct "no" to a student's answer, but there's never any impatience in his voice.

-Rafe calls on one student to answer an item on the least common multiple (LCM) of two fractions from the text. The student remains silent. Rafe rephrases the question. No response. Rafe then uses a synonymous phrase and asks yes/no questions to find the LCM. Eventually the students speaks up to verify the correct answer.

-At times during independent work, Esquith will engage in side conversations not directly related to the work at hand, but having to do with something else learned previously (a DVD watched over the weekend) or coming up ("You guys are going to like Chemistry today").

-Just before the lesson concludes, Esquith delegates some students to tutor others who haven't grasped all the concepts of fractions yet. I notice that these tutors lean towards the tutee, ready to help.

Reflection

All of these moments were possible because the anxiety level in the classroom was practically in the basement. Rafe emphasizes that teaching is about building relationships. You build background knowledge in your relationships by having on-going conversations about current events in/out-side of the classroom. Learners need to know right and wrong ways to do, say, and write what they will be assessed on in the future. In a low pressure, high support environment, receiving a direct "no" doesn't seem to discourage participation.

9:35 - 10:25 Literature

The students are 4 chapters away from finishing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It will be the fourth novel they have read so far this year, after: Of Mice and Men, The Westing Game, and Lord of the Flies (I think). Can I remind you these students are in 5th grade? My 7th graders read two novels in the back half of the school year, The Red Pony and The Pearl, which are at least half as short as one of these novels. Needless to say, I was very interested in how Esquith led the guided reading. Here's what I noticed:

-Rafe strategically selects students to read passages that are appropriate for their level. He took over the reading on a few passages that contained colloquial phrases and vernacular that were difficult.

-Reading flows between the teacher summarizing what was read, comprehension check questions, students reading, and the teacher interjecting background knowledge and explanations.

-Students are used to being held accountable for following along in the text. When a student re-read a part already covered, Rafe said, "we've already read this, who wants to read?" and another student continued reading. BUT, then Esquith comes back to the same student for another opportunity to read at the right spot!

-Students read with prosody and fluency. Commas and sentences require pauses of different lengths that Esquith ensures students use when reading.

-He ends the 10-page reading segment with a speculating (Costa's Level III) question, "what do you think the family reaction is going to be?"

-Room 56 students still must pay the piper of standardized tests. He prefaced the multiple-choice benchmark test the students were to take by saying, "guys, this has zero effect on your future, but give me your best effort. If anyone gets 10 out of 10, I'll give them a 100 dollar bonus [in class money system]."

Reflection

Again, the class culture allows many of the language learning features to take place. Direct, polite error correction; consistency in expecting students to follow along in the reading to be ready when called on randomly or by volunteering; and the ability to take and give up the floor for guided reading can happen when the teacher has established an environment of respect and free of fear.

Questions

At times, language classrooms need to have structure and predictability. How aware are you of your consistency as a teacher to maintain expectations that result in a rigorous curriculum?

When teaching other content through English, what scaffolds to you use to help your students in comprehension?

What would a system of introducing tutors and past students to your class do motivate your current students to achieve more?

Armadillo Alley

There's something about an alley that makes good neighbors. It's off the street where buildings brace against passing pedestrians, constant cars, and blaring buses. It doesn't have landscaping to pretend to be something it isn't. The alley is where you peek into cluttered garages with layers of trash and trinkets exposed by every coming and going of car and truck. The alley is where laundry is aired, trash is left, and pretense is forgotten. Alleys are the soft underbelly of an Armadillo: vulnerable yet well-protected.

My apartment is set in the backyard of a house on a busy street. Yet my domain is peaceful with a window onto the alley below. Across the street, two homes are on the back property of another home on an intersecting street. The resulting configuration makes a tiny hamlet in an otherwise noisy neighborhood. Filled with large and extended Mexican families, my across-the-alley neighbors' homes always have some activity going on. It begins each day with an idling car at 5:30 am, which I imagine is a carpool ride for one of the men to get to the factory. Around 7 am its the rehearsed sound of Maria announcing "Tameles! Chorizu!" (or something like that) as she sells homemade foods out of a stroller to supplement the income of her children. When I come home from work, there's always a gaggle of children playing in the alley or behind the fence. Their conversation flows from Spanish to English to Spanglish as the play escalates in excitement. The playful cries give way to hearty laughter as parents, tios and tias come back from work to enjoy dinner and each other's company once again. When I come home from teaching a late night ESL class, I'll be surprised to notice the newlyweds sitting on the stoop to cuddle and talk in the dark as I stop my car to open the gate and call it a night. Just from the alley, I've gotten to know this family and exchange a few kind words each day as we pass through. On the street, it's different.

"Get that piece of shit outta my way!!!" Ann screams, sitting high in her white Ford truck, ready to back out of her front driveway if it weren't for the Mexican about to leave in the black Nissan Sentra that's blocking it. I know a tough shell when I see it. Ann and Matt live in a 102-year-old home across the street from me. They're patiently restoring it to its original luster. Subdivided rental homes are on both sides of them. One waves an overbearing, faded flag of Mexico. The other, unpretentious. I hear Ann rage as I go on my evening run. On my return, Matt's waving me over to me from across the street. I oblige him. "It's good to see another white face around here." I smirk in politeness to his off-color joke. He wants to show me the inside of his home that he's restoring. I'm leery of what I might see as he takes me from room to room, as if there'll be a stash of pot or something that now I'm party to knowing about. Matt and Ann don't plan to stay very long after their vintage home is restored. "Too many Spanish taking over the neighborhood. Our daughter is 7 and can't ride her bike yet. This neighborhood is too noisy," they say as the neighbor kids zoom up and down the sidewalk on scooters, skateboards, and BMXs. I thank them for showing me their home, but I can't get over the rage I saw before.

On my way back, I realize that I just left the tough outer shell of the Armadillo on the street side. Sometimes I want to roll up and only show my shell; other times it's a pat on my soft belly that helps me through the day. How thick is my shell? How soft is my belly? As thick or as soft as I choose to dwell on it.