Distraction Challenge

Greetings to all my students. Years ago I was signed up to take the CSET English. Four tests that you have to pass in order to be an English teacher among all of the other requirements. You get four hours to take the tests, and you can do one at a time, or all four in one session. My career path and financial state could not afford to wait, so I signed up for all four. 

The day of the test, I had a morning job proctoring a practice SAT. One of my side jobs was teaching fairly rich kids how to pass the SAT with a company called the Princeton Review. The SAT Proctoring job was in Folsom and the CSET was at Kennedy High School in the Elk Grove area. I had a coffee but no other breakfast and proctored the test for three and a half hours. I figured I would hit a drive thru on the way to Elk Grove. 

Folsom to Elk Grove turned out to be a longer distance than I estimated, and then the traffic was terrible. The CSET starts at 1pm and I had to change my plan in order to make it. No lunch. The CSET is the hardest test that I have ever taken and it was mandatory that I pass it. I could retake it, but it would cost money again, and it would be months later.  The four tests were 50 multiple choice on literacy pedagogy and early childhood development. 50 multiple choice questions on the history of literature and classics. 2 long form essay questions and 4 short form essay questions. I took the hardest test of my life on a growling empty stomach, tired from the proctoring that is mostly clock watching, stressed from intense traffic while traveling to a location I had never been before, all before writing six essays and answering 100 questions in under four hours. 

Introduction

To open the class I would like to know how well you write in a "worst case scenario" with a topic you can't prepare for, in a room with too many people, under time pressure, and in a highly distracting environment. 

The difficulty is at challenge level and you will receive full points for effort, instead of judgment based on the product.

As a teacher, I need to know that you have the skill to focus on learning. You need to be able to avoid the chirping, glittering, shiny escapes of the world while doing the work to completion. This especially includes the things you are not good at, and do not find interesting.

Distraction Challenge is the intentionally misleading title of the Sentence Complexity Writing Workshop.This is a challenge that I do typically the second day of a new school year and carry it into the week.

The prompt for the distraction challenge should be focused on an abstract concept in which a judgment must be made. The answer should not be approachable using dialogue or narrative anecdote. .

THIS IS NO GAME PREPARE YOURSELF

MUSIC TIME

BOTHERING TIME

 





Distractions

Dance Distractions

Music That You Didn't Know You Know

Sentence Complexity Workshop

Now it is day two. The essays from the challenge are returned to the student without being read or graded. The students should be given time to look at their work through English teacher eyes.

For this workshop, the students will self-assess the first two sections. 

Now I could have read and graded all of your essays and told you that most of you are simple writers, but that would make you dislike me, and most students unfortunately do not read a teacher's written comments with a goal of fixing or improving themselves. We do workshops like this so that you can tell yourself all the ways your writing is not complex. This is a much safer method for me because I don't get all of the hate, and since you are having this academic conversation with yourself privately, improvement can happen. 

With an extra slice of paper, follow along as we go through the slides. The essay, the syntax analysis worksheet, and this presentation set of notes are all going to be turned in for credit.

Extra Rounds

Depending on the needs of the class, you can do more with this essay.