[MOSAIC] Bill's year

[Bill Roberts]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <lcannon at satx.rr.com>
> I'll try that.  Glad you had one success story this year as you seemed
> discouraged about many of your students.  How did they end the year?

Thanks for asking.  It was interesting to say the least.

There became a schism between the students starting about right after FCAT 
in March.  Many "grew up" which is typical for 8th graders at the end of the 
year, but they looked at the "not so bright" students with disdain.  One 
student was walking along as the class was returning from lunch and 
muttered, "What a moron..." under her breath.  I asked her about it and she 
said "the other students act so immature and say such stupid things."  Many 
would shake their heads in class or were quick to correct dumb responses 
like the girl who wanted to be a pediatrician.  She said it was someone who 
took care of babies.  I said "Like a baby doctor?" and she said, "No, a 
pediatrician."  Or the ones who thought the Sun goes around the Earth.  Or 
the student who didn't know what the U.S. Constitution was...or the one who 
didn't know what a "homosexual" was (don't ask, she understood "fag" when 
another student explained it to her).  Or the 2 that said when commenting on 
the millions of Iraqi civilians who have died, "who cares?  They aren't 
Americans."  The whole class reacted in shock with that comment...especially 
the students who were from Iraq!

We did a research project which about a third commented it was their best 
work.  They put a lot of effort into the research and did a fine job writing 
and presenting the information.  The rest didn't have a clue.  "Babe Ruth 
was a good player, but not much of a hitter."  "My topic was chocolate, but 
I don't remember anything about it."  "Ghosts like to climb stairs and to 
smell lemons."  or they copied directly from the Internet, "as you can see 
from the photo above..." with NO PICTURE.  Neat thing about it was the 3rd 
who did it actually LOOKED differently...they sat taller in their seats and 
held themselves more confidently.  I actually had one girl who was the 
shyest girl I have ever seen STAND IN FRONT OF CLASS and present her topic! 
She would talk, get red, hide behind the poster she was holding, then 
continue....but she did something she would have never done before!

By the end, about a third went up on reading and fluency levels.  About 35% 
had over 100 AR points for the year with the top 12 earning over 200 each. 
About half stayed at about the same level with only minimal gains while 
about 20 % went down, but this is the same group that didn't read, didn't do 
any work, didn't participate and slept whenever possible.  Not one of my 
best years, but there were gains..just not what I wanted....now we have to 
wait until next Thursday to get out FCAT scores......

Bill