Literacy and Drugs

It's no secret that our school system is low-performing. It's no secret that we've got a lot of growing to do to get us out from under the state's thumb. And it's no secret that our kids have a long way to go to meet the standards that have been set for them.

This school year, our county has added on an additional 30 minutes to the school day, presumably to help raise test scores and move our students closer to success. At our school in particular, that 30 minutes has been tacked on as an extra class at the end of the day, a period that is supposed to focus on increasing literacy among our students.

At first, those extra 30 minutes were killer. Students and teachers alike were used to walking out the door at 3:00, just seconds away from freedom. Students were confused about the point of those 30 minutes; without a structured activity, it felt like free time. Teachers like me were frustrated by having another period to plan, and the transition from a content class to "literacy period" felt artificial and uncomfortable. And what do kids even care about literacy, anyways? They don't like to read, and they definitely don't like to write (mostly because they struggle immensely with both).

Now, planning literacy time is something I genuinely look forward to. Why, you ask? Because the 7th grade team has started using a resource called "Word Generation". According to its website...

"Word Generation is a research-based vocabulary program for middle school students designed to teach words through language arts, math, science, and social studies classes. The program employs several strategies to ensure that students learn words in a variety of contexts." (www.wg.serpmedia.org)

Each Word Generation lesson is focused on a controversial issue that is relevant to the kids and/or important to discuss, and is written in the form of a question: Should single-gender education be an option in public schools? Should athletes be paid multi-million dollar salaries? Should junk food be allowed in schools? Should the U.S. use the death penalty? What kind of health education is the best (abstience vs. safe sex)? Each lesson includes a short article with 5 focus words, a math problem of the week, topics for debate, a science experiment, and a writing prompt. Last week, we discussed whether or not boys and girls should be separated in schools, made a pros and cons chart, watched a news clip about a school that does this, solved a math problem on the same topic, and wrote letters to our principal to defend our positions. This week, our topic was "Should drugs be legalized?" It was refreshing to have a mature conversation about a topic that is very controversial and, for some of these kids, hits close to home. And the best part: the kids have no idea that they are improving their literacy. Learning vocabulary, reading an article, communicating their ideas orally, and defending their arguments in words--we're making the most of this 30 minutes, and the kids are actually engaged. I will say, we have a long way to go with their writing and arguing skills, though. Below, I've included some samples from this past week's discussion. Please note that I took special care to spell everything exactly as they did. And pay special attention to the logic they use...it's frightening and hysterical at the same time.

Enjoy!

“Drugs shoud be legal, but only for people over 21. This will keep more teenagers from getting addicted because if drugs where legal more people will stay alive and if it was legalized more people will be dead that why drugs should be legal. They will be skinny”

“I agree with D because teenagers sould not be on durgs because they get reallie addicted to it and end up getting killed. But people over 21 sould use it for there needs. Not for a bad reason, some use it durgs for medicane for there problems.”

“because, say if I were to have some weed and I were to give it to that person and he were to ask for it and I wouldn’t have it and then he might either kill me or beat me up.”

“I think drugs should be legalized because people who on drgs they get real skinny and if they wont on drugs they would be thier regular sizes.”


This week, our topic is affirmative action. I'm excited to see where the discussion leads. I love having conversations that involve race, because it's something the kids aren't exposed to very often since they are in a very homogenous community. I also love to watch them squirm when I say the word "white". I can't WAIT to make them say it, too.