Documentation Examples > Examples of documentation to aid teachers' own reflections

How Does Your Garden Grow? Questions our students have us asking

School: Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School

2. How important was students' experience of membership in a classroom community?

" . . . the highlights in this class. . . I think every moment is a highlight, every day, every moment, every second. There's some sad days, some happy days. I don't know. . . there's just this class - there's different people in this class. There's funny people, quiet people, there's people that I didn't think I can talk to like Alyssa . . . because, like, I don't know, I didn't think me and her could talk like that. I don't know, this class is just different. Boys and girls would argue but then its funny 'cause we would argue but we would just be a team. Like, I don't know, it's weird, and everybody in this class, even though I probably had an argument with you guys in the past, even Ms. Hogue, thank you for helping me. It might not seem like it from my grade and all that, but it might. . . you really helped me. And next year I will remember everything you did so I wouldn't do the same mistakes. Thank you everybody." ~ Ashley

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"Everybody in this class is so different, like, everybody has a different personality, like, rude, nice, mean, or, I don't know. But we're all a family, like, I don't know, we just have that click, like, I don't know, we just have a click. Like we can all talk to each other like people aren't scared to say, "Oh, Ms. Hogue, I don't understand this." Yeah, we might say, "Oh my goodness," but we just be playing. It's like we're all brothers and sisters in here and Ms. Hogue is the mother and she's trying to (inaudible) the whole class." ~ Lina

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"The thing that I really enjoyed was when we were all together and we're all having fun and everyone participating and stuff. Like right now. That's one of my highlights." ~ Rasmiya

"A highlight I had this year was when we did the Odyssey play in class and my beard kept falling off. It was really funny and I think the whole group had a good time and it was just really fun. It was fun to work with everybody and (inaudible) group of people." ~ Alexander

"The highlight of this class . . . is being with everyone this semester." ~ Jeffrey (The ellipses represent a long pause during which I was sure he was thinking up something sarcastic to say.)

"The highlight of this class was working together with everybody. That was great." ~ Laura

"Final thoughts: I like this class a lot, like, every morning I was happy coming here. Even though you make fun of me, and I make fun of some people, but this class was fun. Like I never used to like literature at all. It was always my worst subject since I was, like, a little kid. And then coming to this class I understand literature much better." ~ Calvin

"In my writing - getting feedback from everyone and Ms. Hogue shows that everyone cares about what I write and how I should write it." (paraphrased from Jean)

Joan:

So important!! When words like "team" and "family" are chosen by students, when a ninth-graders says, "I think every moment is a highlight, every day, . . . , every second," the students are clearly talking about comfort, safety, respect, maybe even love. Learning is one thing that blooms from this combination: Lina spoke of students not fearing to say, "Oh, Ms. Hogue, I don't understand this," and Chris stated, "I understand literature much better." Responsibility, resolutions for the future, and gratitude are other things that blossom: One student described her failing course grade (though her Lord of the Flies paper was high quality) as her own fault, acknowledged being helped, and gave thanks. The openness, the generosity, and the warmth create a perfect environment for growth.

Suddenly the garden has become a kind of ecosystem in which Jen and I, though respectively the chief and secondary gardeners who tend and care for it, aren't the only agents of growth and the only cultivators of beauty. The flowers, the growing things, live interdependently and we all play our roles in fostering and then sustaining the growth. Truly it is "notre jardin." And we await the next growing season and prepare for its gifts and challenges, first by looking back on last year.