No Learning After the Test? NOPE.

I get a bit upset when I hear people say, even jokingly, that there's no learning going on in classrooms after the state test. This bothers me for a couple of reasons:

• I know the state test is important, but it is far from being the only learning objective in my classroom!
• My students' state tests are in very late March and very early April. School gets out in early June. If I stopped all their learning at that point, I'd be shortchanging them, setting up conditions for behavioral issues, and wasting their time. That's a LONG time to sit in a class you aren't learning anything in.
• My job isn't to babysit. If we sat around from late March to early June, I'd be nothing more than a babysitter, which is ridiculous.

Here's just a sampling of what my eighth graders will do the last quarter of school:

1. They are reading and analyzing the Holocaust memoir Night by Elie Wiesel--this includes essay responses, modified AP-style quizzes, Socratic Seminars in class, and at the end, they will paint on canvas a depiction (concrete or abstract) of the mood of Night.

2. GENIUS HOUR! They select their own topic (appropriate for school, of course) to research and create a technological-based presentation on, then present this to the class. They have to document their learning in a blog, comment constructively on other students' blogs, and use MLA format to cite their sources. This is something they literally look forward to all year long.

3. They will be writing an essay in class documenting their learning process from Genius Hour.

4. They will be writing collaborative short stories. This is at their request! It will take half a class period spread out over seven class periods. I will be getting copies of the stories bound for them as an eighth grade/middle school graduation gift, to keep forever. They're quite excited about their fiction writing--I have a very creative group of eighth graders!

5. Free writing! Like I said, they're pretty creative and strong writers, and they love free writing--when they are allowed to simply follow their thoughts and explore any genre of writing they wish to in their journals.

Here's a sampling of what my English I students are doing this quarter:

1. They are reading and analyzing the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer. Essay responses, quizzes, and an analysis of archetypes and epic similes and metaphors will be included. Each day when we read, the mood is set with a ton of flameless flickering candles all over the room. It's as close as I can get to an ancient Greek banquet hall with a blind Homer reciting his poem! Towards the end, we might enjoy a small Greek meal with kalamata olives, feta cheese, pita bread, grilled goat, and grape juice. (No wine, obviously!) That would be to read the final parts of Book XXIII.

2. GENIUS HOUR! See above.

3. They will also be writing an essay in class documenting their learning process from Genius Hour.

4. Free writing! Like my eighth graders, English I students also enjoy the opportunity to explore writing in completely different genres.

(English I did not request to write collaborative stories, but The Odyssey is quite long, so they have more than enough to do!)

I'm not including smaller elements of their learning this nine weeks (such as preparing to do the summer reading work), but obviously we're pretty darn busy learning and getting ready for Pre-AP English I and II. Learning time is valuable, and I don't intend to waste it.