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Cathy Fleischer
Sarah Lorenz
Jim Schaefer
As I was working on some research for my Law case in my Ph.D. program, I had an encounter with a legal case, formally listed as Gall v. United States, 552 U. S. (2007), that provided me with a lesson that I will not forget as a scholar, learner, and practitioner. And it is the kind of lesson that I wish college students would remember during all of their time in institutions of higher learning: Unlike the infamous Las Vegas motto, what happens in college does not just stay there. Usually I think that refers to the profound positive lessons we learn, but in this case, the student—who was actually a former student when this unfortunate situation erupted—had a very unpleasant surprise.
I initially discovered the Gall case while I was doing research as part of a project looking for cases reflecting situations involving students in some kind of trouble, either procedural or violent. When I saw that this situation involved a student with a drug issue, I included it in my pile of possibilities.
I did not realize the full extent of this college student, whose name was Brian Gall, until I read the entire case. Then I realized how tragically similar his situation was to many of my students now and that of too many of my classmates during my college years. Gall had started out sampling the various drugs of choice, such as ecstasy, cocaine, and marijuana, and then his growing addiction got him ever more involved in the illegal drug business or, as the federal law enforcement agents called it, “the conspiracy.”
I have had students and classmates who did not get the breaks that Gall ended up enjoying. They also tried to confess for what they had done and attempted to “work a deal,” but they experienced, tragically, much different results. Instead of 30 to 36 months of probation, they received that much time and more—and in prison.
I also liked the Gall case because it showed that at least sometimes the courts can work quite deliberately to provide justice for people if they are willing to stop their drug use, find a way to work, and lead a decent life.
The Gall case also taught me that all these words and stacks of papers and books that we are reading now do, after all, represent the lives of real people and the choices that they have made, good or bad, plus the daunting task of sorting out what is a fair and just way, based on years, decades, and centuries of this effort, to enforce the rules and boundaries of our social order.
I will continue to remember Gall’s story and use it in my classroom, not only to show that justice is possible but also that what you do in college may re-emerge in your everyday life later—and not necessarily in nice ways, if what you did was illegal. I will also reflect on this in terms of my teaching of writing because I have had students who have served jail or prison time and are now in school, and they often really struggle to make sense of their compromised lives (although writing does seem to be valuable in those struggles).
References
Gall v. United States, 552 U. S. (2007).
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Deb Hetrick
Attending the annual literacy conference in Hillsdale, MI this summer, brought me back to my summers with the EMWP. Write, respond, and write some more. Now, with the focus of the Common Core Standards on in-depth reflection/student interaction, the emphasis of the conference was - student participation in peer discussions and written response.
When engaged in thinking, speaking and writing activities on a regular basis throughout the day, students take responsibility for their learning. They take ownership of the material when they have multiple opportunities to discuss, write, discuss and revise their thinking/writing again. Both nationally known authors, Sharon Taberski (reading) and Penny Kittle (writing), stressed the importance of written response, for all subjects, throughout the day.
So, as the school year gears up for another stressful round of standardized tests, teacher evaluation, and focusing on meeting the Common Core Standards as well as the report card objectives, I need to get back to the basics. The “writing project” basics: think about it, talk about it, write about it, talk about it, think about it and write about it some more. That’s what I need to model for my new class.
If you drop into my classroom, I hope you hear my students discussing and coaching, and see them reflecting and writing during guided math, literacy, social studies, science and writer’s workshop. I want them to attend to the mini lessons or focused instruction and then talk with peers and write about the “how and why.” During work station rotations I expect them to talk, write, talk and revise, and write again.
Creating a classroom climate conducive to this independent thinking/reflection is more daunting to me than new curriculum material. Modeling behavior for supportive peer coaching, independent working, and staying on task are what the Daily Five Sisters advocate for literacy. This year I’m trying it out as a daily way of life in my classroom. Wish me luck! And if I’m in the front of the room talking too much, don’t hesitate to take me aside and whisper supportively into my ear, “Get back to the writing project basics.”
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