ROOM 208
Five days a week, I go by Mrs. Allen (other approved titles include ma'am or boss), and I hang out with some of my favorite people on the planet: my students.
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Here in Room 208, I teach 8th grade Language Arts and French. My students and I learn how to be better writers and more thoughtful readers. We learn how to speak French and how to navigate foreign cultures.
We also learn how to be critical thinkers, how to write passionate arguments, and how to express our truest selves in poetry. We learn how to see the beauty in other cultures, how to connect across diverse experiences, and how to love the imperfections of our own broken French.
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We learn how to work as a team and how to solve difficult problems. We learn that we can have fun in school and learn at the same time. We learn that it's cool to be goofy and wear dinosaur heads.
We learn that we are significant, capable, and loved.
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Below you'll find descriptions of the classes I teach, including course objectives, main projects, and examples of student work.
LANGUAGE ARTS
COURSE DESCRIPTION​
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Our 8th grade Language Arts class covers reading, writing, speaking, and listening. We read two novels together as a class, My Brother Sam is Dead and The Giver, as well as several choice books. We write narrative fictions, argumentative essays, and persuasive speeches. We practice reading and writing skills that essential for students' success, but ultimately, we seek to explore the common human experience across times and cultures, in hopes of bettering our current world.
FISHBOWL STUDENT-LED DISCUSSIONS​
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Whenever we tackle a novel together as a class, I try to take time to step back from facilitating class discussions and instead make room for students to lead their own reflection time on the story. We regularly complete fishbowl discussions that put students at the center of their learning, literally and figuratively. Half of the class enter the inner circle and discuss different topics, questions, and opinions about the novel while the outer circle takes notes and provides feedback on their discussion. Every year, without fail, there are several students who say these fishbowl days were their favorite of the year.
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The image shows our classroom room set up for a Fishbowl Discussion.
POETRY COMPILATION​
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One of our main units is all about poetry, and it culminates in a final project called the Poetry Compilation. For this project, students choose one topic and collect poems from various authors about the topic, in addition to writing two of their own poems. Students then perform one of their poems to the class. The Poetry Compilation allows students to explore their own interests, learn from poets of their choosing, and practice self-expression through creativity.
In the video, I perform my example poem, "The True Story of a Teacher," to my 8th grade students.
FRENCH I
COURSE DESCRIPTION​
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French 1 is an introductory course, where we learn the basics of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in our new language. We complete projects about our family, hobbies, and interests, as well as learn to communicate in everyday settings. Beyond studying the French language itself, we also explore the cultural practices and values of Francophone countries around the world, which in turn help us to reflect on our own. The goal of this class is to gain confidence in our new French voices, to regularly practice our French, and to appreciate the complexity of the world around us.
QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE
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Throughout the year, we complete a variety of Quickfire Challenges, which are student-centered, timed lessons that focus on research, creation, and presentation skills. One of our first Quickfires of the year asks students to be travel agents who coordinate a day trip to Paris. They must decide on sites to visit, knowledge to share, and food to eat along their tour. Other Quickfires cover topics like French holidays, Francophone countries, current events, and political races. Each one is only one day of class, but the intention is to help encourage lifelong learning beyond their time in class with me.
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The image shows my student's morning plans for her day trip to Paris.
CHARACTER SLIDESHOW
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French 1 builds on itself more and more throughout the year. What students learn in the first semester is still relevant in the second semester. The Character Slideshow is a third quarter project that asks students to bring together a variety of their knowledge in a presentation format. Students must use different subject pronouns, irregular verbs, adjectives, and questions to describe their characters while providing visuals that match their descriptions. The project serves as a powerful moment for students to look back on their learning and take pride in how far they've come in this new language.
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The image shows a student's description of her Golden Retriever.
