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.
Will, thanks for sharing this! I see some similar things in my observations, and it baffles me compared to what I did in high school! Many times I see that the teacher a lot time in class to do the homework as opposed too letting them work on it at home and use their free time. I see the usefulness in some cases, but many time I feel this is good for formative assessment! I think that the time in class should be utilized for the group work, and then the individual work should be done individually! I wonder how teachers get through all of the material when they a lot this time in class to doing homework! One thing that I really did like about your post though is that you discussed the topic of seeing how students felt about the story that the teacher chose. I feel this could be vital information to see how students act in class and whether or not that want to engage! I also liked how the students were peer editing each others papers and this could help them see what to add in their own and also work on skills for editing their own papers!
ReplyDeleteI also liked the approach of asking the students what they thought of the short story before just digging right into the specifics of the story. I think that gives the students some power in their learning if they are able to express their opinions and talk openly about it. I also think it helps to make the students feel more comfortable with the material and the classroom. I totally agree with you and think that co-teaching would be really awesome to witness (hopefully done well)—because in other classes I have learned that it tends to be beneficial to everyone. I’ve also learned that co-teaching should be done fluently, meaning that you shouldn’t really be able to tell the difference between teachers and what they are there for; a teacher is a teacher and they are there for the benefit of the student. To address your last couple of sentences, I think being tired is a real thing, and one of the reason students are so tired is because they are unmotivated. I think that motivation is a huge role in one’s learning, and it’s not necessarily all on the teacher, but the way schools are forced to be. As we grow up, school becomes less fun and motivating and moves towards becoming mandatory gibberish. This is a question that resonates with me, and I always wonder how to keep school fun and engaging?
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