Oak Grove teacher engages her students

Eileen Pavletic has been teaching eighth-grade literature and language arts (ELA) at Oak Grove Elementary School since 2003. Her 19-year education career includes teaching in Arlington, New York, and Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 in Schaumburg. In between Schaumburg and Oak Grove, she worked at IBM in its Office Products Division in sales.

Her teaching experience has always been in middle school, including seventh and eighth grade.

Q. Eighth grade is sort of a transition year from elementary education to high school. How do you help students mature with their writing and their literacy skills to get them ready for the expectations of a high school English class?

A. Eighth grade is definitely a transition year from elementary education to the high school. There are many ways that I attempt to help students be ready for the rigors of a high school English class.

Since homework is counted as part of their grades in high school, one of the first behaviors I work on is timely work completion. I stress the importance of turning in assignments when due as well as completing them to the best of their abilities.

I continually stress the need for them to be self-advocates and take responsibility for their learning. In terms of their specific writing and literacy skills, the units are designed to increase these skills in a gradual and rigorous manner.

The textbook is Common Core aligned, and the middle school ELA teachers and I feel that the topics covered are authentic and sound. There is a mix of fiction and informational text to prepare students for high school and beyond.

As for literacy skills, close reading is stressed to help students be able to achieve depth of comprehension. Writing is a skill that requires daily practice, and I try to provide that time in class.

In addition, I continually stress the importance of being heard. Oak Grove is small compared to the other feeder schools that attend Libertyville High School, and I don't want my students to be overlooked. Therefore, participation during discussion is important.

Q. Reading and writing tend to be more solitary activities, but there's so much buzz these days about student collaboration. How has an English/language arts class changed since your students' parents were in school? And how do you appeal to the high-tech generation?

A. While it is true that reading and writing tend to be more solitary activities, student collaboration is also a goal in my classroom.

During the course of a week, students will work in a variety of settings. Sometimes they work independently, sometimes they work in pairs, and sometimes they work in small groups. For instance, currently my students are reading a play in groups of five to 10, allowing them to experience the text in a more authentic way.

In their writing classes, peer editing is a natural way to collaborate. In addition, author's chair is used at times for students to share their work.

My students are comfortable using technology since they have laptops assigned to them that they carry to each class. Their textbooks are on the OGS website, but it's interesting to see how many students prefer to read the actual textbook instead of the e-book.

Having said that, I try to instill in our students the idea that the laptop is a tool and should be used by them to their advantage. Specifically, they just accessed a Google Lit Trip to view Anne Frank's Amsterdam. Because this is a virtual field trip, this would not have been possible without the technology.

In addition, each year research librarians from Cook Memorial Library come and teach the students how to navigate their databases. This opportunity enables students a deeper and richer way of accessing information on the computer. Because of the vast amount of information on the Internet, it's important to help students become informed consumers.

Q. If you could remove one tried-and-true piece of required reading from the curriculum, what would you take out and what would you replace it with? Why?

A. If I had the resources to remove a piece of literature, it might be a novel the students have read over the course of many years - "The Lottery Rose." Given the opportunity, I would replace it with "Lord of the Flies." That novel is a classic that I believe would have a lasting impact on adolescents.