A teacher’s view: What’s best for students?

Amid the cacophony of some 300 fingers simultaneously striking keyboards with as much fervor as my students’ typing fluency will allow, it appears that I alone have writer’s block.

We have arrived at the point in our unit of study, the short story, where students are busy crafting their own. It is the quintessential moment of opportunity where, after weeks of analysis and example, students have been given the onerous task of demonstrating understanding at the highest level of Bloom’s taxonomy; creating.

Oh sure, not every child is turning out prose worthy of publication, but they are seeing the fruits of their labor, sown in the hours of study and preparations, appear before them on the page, and they are proud of their work.

This is the “arts” piece of the language arts classroom I learned to love when I was a student here in the Valley some 20 years ago and no doubt led to my pursuit of a career teaching English. It turns out the world has changed since I was in the student desk (gross understatement — all verbal irony intended) and with it so must instruction. I find myself holding fast to a promise that I will “not go gentle into that good night,” (a metaphor from poet Dylan Thomas intended to represent death), symbolizing the language arts classroom where literature is supplanted with informational and expository text.

The conflict in my story is always internal and never changes. It is the continuous pursuit of determining what is best for kids.

The state Department of Education has adopted new standards to guide classroom practices. Following the implementation of those standards will be a significant increase in the emphasis of analytical reading of nonfiction texts.

The justification is simple; our children, via the Internet and other mass media, are inundated with information at a rate never before experienced. Therefore, it becomes our job to teach them how to read and filter it appropriately. Students will learn, according to the standards, “to trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text” and analyze “how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations … by emphasizing different evidence.” This knowledge will help keep them safe by giving them the tools to sort the bad information from the good, the better from the best.

It’s what’s best for the kids, but it means less time for fiction.

OK, so if I keep Maslow’s hierarchy in mind, I know safety comes first and is foundational to self-actualizing (which is where we find art and creativity). I sometimes forget my place; do I teach in a manner that equips kids for the world in which we live, or for a world in which we wish to live? Of course, I must prepare kids for their future as citizens of a digital world, but I also want them to see the beauty of the literary world. Can I do both?

I imagine this may be my last class of students to have the opportunity to spend two whole months examining and writing short stories and I mentally arm myself with clichéd mantras such as “change is the only constant” as I prepare for that impending shift. In the meantime, I resolve to post those short stories on my teacher webpage for all to read, the modern-day refrigerator for showing off students’ work.

Amber Rinella is a veteran language arts teacher in a paperless classroom at Wasilla Middle School.