Documentation of Learning

Every Monday, in two of my three classes, my students hand in a Documentation of Learning Portfolio (DLP). It is five paragraphs long, and must answer a list of specific questions about the previous week's learning. Here's my DLP for the week of April 28-May 2.

Describe something you learned last week and how you learned it. Give an example of it. Why is that learning important?
Last week I learned that if a student is determined to fail, there is little I can do to stop him. I learned it from one of my students, a boy I'll call Simon. Simon barely passed the first freshman English course I taught at ConVal in the fall of 1999. Now he's a senior in Writing About Music, where students must write eight "quality pieces" -- poetry, prose, lyrics, reviews, anything they like having to do with music -- in order to pass. Each piece must go through at least three drafts, so at minimum, each student will write 24 drafts in eight weeks. We are three weeks into the course now, and Simon has not yet passed in a single draft. Whatever I may have learned or however I may have improved as a teacher in the last four years, it hasn't been enough to help Simon. This learning is important because it reminds me that I am not Sidney Poitier.

Who inspired you last week, and what did it inspire you to do?
I was inspired by the ConVal chapter of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), their advisors and administrators, and the local police, firefighters, businesses and social service agencies who put on Project Crash, a simulation of a double-fatality prom night auto accident. More than a thousand students and teachers saw simulated victims (SADD members) treated with the same grave professionalism, precision, and gentleness real victims receive. It was great, moving theater, and I wish every member of the community could have seen it. It inspired me, Saturday night, to drink water at dinner with friends in Vermont before driving home.

What went well for you last week, and what could have gone better?
My freshmen did a good job talking about Richard Wright's Black Boy. At one point, I asked them to consider how Richard would have been different had he been able to have all the things he hungered for while growing up in Mississippi in the early 20th century -- enough to eat, love and support from his family, a decent education, enough books to read, freedom from prejudice and terrorism. Two girls in that class -- Ashley Bednarski and Dana Doxey -- came up with a stunning answer: "He'd be white." What could have gone better was my dismal failure to teach that same class the principles of pronoun-antecedent agreement.

What questions do you have about your reading last week?
In Saturday's Boston Globe I read about Aron Ralston, who went hiking by himself in Utah¹s Canyonlands National Park. Somehow, he managed to get an arm pinned underneath a 1,000-lb. boulder. After waiting five days for help, two of those days without water, he applied a tourniquet to the arm and cut it off with a pocketknife. Then he rappelled 60 feet to the canyon floor and walked out. My question is: How did he do that?

What are your goals for next week, and how well did you succeed in achieving last week's goals?
Last week, my goal was to teach my freshmen about pronoun-antecedent agreement. Oh, well. Next week, my goal is this: Whenever I'm having a bad day, I will think about Aron Ralston.

P.S. The day after I drafted this column, Simon handed in a poem. Maybe I am Sidney Poitier.