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Martha Roberts, 6th-Grade Language Arts
Capps Middle School
Martha Roberts has taught 20 years and is in her second year as a 6th-grade language arts teacher at Capps Middle School. She believes reading is the key for every student to become a succesful and contributing member of society. It shows in her teaching.
Most of my career has been teaching adults GED and as an adjunct professor. While teaching adults, I have seen so many students grow and succeed. One student came to me not able to read at all. She wanted me to read a Harry Potter book to her. I had her sit next to me and we read aloud together, with her taking cues from me. About half way through the book she stood up and looked around the room. She started running around the room pointing to words and reading them. The whole class was in tears and clapping. Something had clicked into place, and she could read.
 Coming to Capps Middle School, I wanted to bring many of the activities I have learned through the years that helped adults learn to read to a classroom of young students. Reading is the doorway and equalizer for every student to become a contributing member of society.
Bringing literature alive for today's students can be a challenge. With all the technology at their fingertips, some students would rather not read. I use technology to break up the day. I can show a 3-minute clip of a movie relevant to what we are learning. I used a movie they were all familiar with to teach the love of poetry. We have access to video clips teaching a specific skill such as finding the main idea of a story.
We read and study the genres of literature in the 6th-grade. To teach the concept of genres, I had a CD made of many different genres of music. The students classified each piece of music by genre – classical, country, jazz, R & B, rock and so on. We had such fun guessing the genre into which each song fit. We even danced. I have to admit the students laughed at my silly antics, but the whole experience did bring the word “genre” to students and made it relevant when we started using it to describe literature.
When it was time to teach students about the concept of a plotline, we read “Dragon, Dragon” and had a poster contest. The students had to incorporate the plotline into their poster. Then each class selected the best poster in three categories: one for the art, one for organization and one for handwriting. The three winning students then made big posters, and all the classes voted on the best one. The students displayed tons of creativity, the dragons were fantastic and the story plotline was perfectly mastered. This lesson was a big hit, and students still refer back to it for an example as we study new things. The key is retention and the students could remember all the terminology associated with plots of a story.
Last year, I invited a speaker to come to class and share his passion for helping children in Africa. My students were so moved that they made posters and collected pop cans to help those students in Africa. I was moved at the way this project touched the hearts of many students.
This year, I became involved with the Multicultural Club. I’m very impressed with the quality of leadership our 6th-grade class has shown. Many are very involved, and I see wonderful leaders coming out of this class. Typically this age is rather shy about getting involved because they are new to middle school. Several students have stepped up to the plate and want to be involved.
Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to take five students to the Oklahoma Centennial Writers Conference. The students engaged themselves in every activity. Two students elected to go to the art gallery for one breakout session. The art displayed was from high school students. After the students were given some direction, they were asked to pick a painting as a prompt and write. The gallery was quiet, and I could see the wheels of creativity at work. Students shared their work. The fun part as an educator was to see how well our 6th-graders stood next to high school students. Capps Middle School students in the 6th-grade came out on top with their writing. I was so proud of each of the students.
I’m thankful for the teachers our students had before they came to Capps Middle School. They clearly laid a great foundation for these students.
I enjoy being at Capps Middle School because I wanted to work collaboratively with a team of teachers. I have found this collaborative spirit in the English department here. I love the teachers I work with. We get very excited when a skill or lesson is successful with the students.
I have so much support at Capps Middle School. I take advantage of every opportunity I can to learn more. Putnam City Schools has the best support system for teachers I have ever experienced. Our principals have given me so many opportunities to become a better collaborative teacher working with other professionals to be the best I can. Our district technology team gives us classes all year around to help us use technology into the classroom to engage students in learning.
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