I returned to Mrs. Gay's 10th grade English classes at South Portland High School for my most recent observation. In her first class, the students were working on character charts for Animal Farm, and Mrs. Gay went over how the characters in the books were based upon major figures from the Russian Revolution (she also had the class repeat the word "allegorical" together). The students were then instructed to make a poster of one character of their choice, detailing that character's external and internal traits and how they changed over the course of the story. This formative assessment wasn't being graded on artistic merit, but she encouraged the students to draw pictures on their posters and get creative. Mrs. Gay later explained to me that she tries to throw in a more "arts & crafty" project every so often, because it tends to be more fun for the students, and engagement is a little bit better than the normal essay writing exercises.
I also asked her how long she typically spends on a book, and she told me the maximum time she will give is six weeks. Any longer than that and students completely lose focus and the unit drags on too long. Also, if a student can't read a book in six weeks, it probably means they aren't going to try to read the book at all, no matter how much time they are given.
In the other class, which was beginning a unit on persuasive essays writing, she used a really cool tool called peardeck. Basically, she would pose a question on the projector (i.e. "Do you think the school start time should be changed from 7:30am to 8:10am?") and the students, via their iPads, could identify what side of the issue they supported, which would then give way to lively classroom debate. The students could also type comments, which would then appear on the screen. The class seemed to really enjoy this exercise, and it definitely sparked some interesting conversations, and best of all it worked as a perfect segue for a discussion on defending a position and finding appropriate supporting evidence. It was a great program, and something that I hope I can use as a teacher in the future. It's been interesting to see the different types of technology and programs now being used in classroom to promote literacy and writing concepts.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Essay Editing & Apathy
I have been observing various school districts in an effort to see which one would be the best setting to complete my student teaching in the spring. Most recently, I observed a ninth grade English teacher's classes at York High School.
The class began with a review of a short story that the students had read for homework. Before the teacher got into the specific questions about the text, she asked them what they thought of the story and if they liked it. I thought it was a good way to get them talking about the book. Too often teachers don't even bother to ask if their students like what they are reading; though as we learned from the "Garfield Survey" exercise, enthusiasm for reading is one of the best predictors for success.
Most of the students had enjoyed the story, which was an ironic twist on a classic fantasy tale where the dragonslayer ends up eaten by the dragon. The questions that the teacher asked about the specific characters and themes in the story served as a quick formative assessment of the students' grasp on what they had read.
Following this exercise, they moved onto editing essays that discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the literary devices in a novel they had read for independent reading. The teacher provided them with a checklist of what an exemplary essay should include. It was a good way to set expectations, so that they can provide the best work for their summative assessment (in this case, the completed essay).
The teacher also made a point of telling the students that for their initial draft the most important thing was structure. They could even use boring language (like "firstly", "secondly", and "thirdly") as long as the structure was correct, and that they would work on incorporating more creative language in a separate step. It was a good reminder that sometimes you have to work on once concept at a time, instead of trying to get your students to get every element of an assignment right on the first try.
One of the classes was co-taught by a special education teacher, as this particular class included nine students (out of a total of 19) with an IEP. Unfortunately, the special ed teacher was absent that day, so a substitute was filling in and I didn't get to see how that dynamic typically worked. I would be interested in learning more about how teachers and ed techs works together and communicate to address student needs and assess their progress.
In my conversations with the teacher afterwards, she said that one of the biggest challenges that she runs into is student apathy. She has moved to having students do more work in class instead of as homework (over half of the class was given over to letting the students work on their essays while the teacher went around the room to help them individually), because a lot of the students won't even bother to do the work otherwise, and then there is nothing to assess! It's gotten to the point where the parents are also making excuses for the kids, saying that they don't do their work because they are "tired". The teacher thinks it is a growing problem, and is unsure how to address it.
The class began with a review of a short story that the students had read for homework. Before the teacher got into the specific questions about the text, she asked them what they thought of the story and if they liked it. I thought it was a good way to get them talking about the book. Too often teachers don't even bother to ask if their students like what they are reading; though as we learned from the "Garfield Survey" exercise, enthusiasm for reading is one of the best predictors for success.
Most of the students had enjoyed the story, which was an ironic twist on a classic fantasy tale where the dragonslayer ends up eaten by the dragon. The questions that the teacher asked about the specific characters and themes in the story served as a quick formative assessment of the students' grasp on what they had read.
Following this exercise, they moved onto editing essays that discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the literary devices in a novel they had read for independent reading. The teacher provided them with a checklist of what an exemplary essay should include. It was a good way to set expectations, so that they can provide the best work for their summative assessment (in this case, the completed essay).
The teacher also made a point of telling the students that for their initial draft the most important thing was structure. They could even use boring language (like "firstly", "secondly", and "thirdly") as long as the structure was correct, and that they would work on incorporating more creative language in a separate step. It was a good reminder that sometimes you have to work on once concept at a time, instead of trying to get your students to get every element of an assignment right on the first try.
One of the classes was co-taught by a special education teacher, as this particular class included nine students (out of a total of 19) with an IEP. Unfortunately, the special ed teacher was absent that day, so a substitute was filling in and I didn't get to see how that dynamic typically worked. I would be interested in learning more about how teachers and ed techs works together and communicate to address student needs and assess their progress.
In my conversations with the teacher afterwards, she said that one of the biggest challenges that she runs into is student apathy. She has moved to having students do more work in class instead of as homework (over half of the class was given over to letting the students work on their essays while the teacher went around the room to help them individually), because a lot of the students won't even bother to do the work otherwise, and then there is nothing to assess! It's gotten to the point where the parents are also making excuses for the kids, saying that they don't do their work because they are "tired". The teacher thinks it is a growing problem, and is unsure how to address it.
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