Some of my favorite times as a teacher are those rare days when the students stay on task and get their work done...EARLY! Most days, we work bell-to-bell, but if there are only 5 or so minutes left in class, I take that time to get to know these young people with whom I spend so much time. Many of these students will be with me all 4 years of their high school experience (LA2 -> JR LA), so I prefer to be on the best terms possible with each of them.
In those brief 5-6 minutes, I learn about home life, boyfriends/girlfriends, hobbies, aspirations, interests, past experiences, opinions about reading, favorite classes, opinions about what the students consider good/bad teaching, and what current movies I should go see. Through these interactions, the students learn that there is another adult in this world who cares about them. This kind of connection is often useful with motivating the students in class. When something is difficult for them, they trust me enough to ask questions. When they don't understand something, they feel comfortable enough to say so. If I have to reprimand them, they know it's not personal. If they fail an activity or (yikes!) the class, they know that I cared enough to help them as much as I could, and that their failure is their own fault. And if they need help with non-school problems, they know that I am here to listen or offer assistance.
I always tell them: "If I didn't care, I wouldn't get upset with you for being off task. If I didn't care, I wouldn't send you a progress report every Friday and show my disappointment that you aren't turning in work or completing assignments. So, if I'm unhappy with you, you should know that it's only because I won't give up on you." So, these small moments, when we talk about non-school things, reinforce the fact that I do see them and care about them as individuals.
Here's what's been happening in my classes this week:
SOPH WORLD LIT
Using the Ladybug document camera and photocopied versions of the text for Sundiata, the students and I read through the 2 chapters together, annotating and discussing along the way. Going through a text this way allows for so many more opportunities for questioning and discussion. The students have come up with great questions during classtime, and others have offered responses. This shows me that they are all truly engaged with the text and are processing it on various levels. Actually, a couple of times, we read part of the text, and students have said, "Miss, shouldn't we highlight that because it says..." I praise them for being active readers and include their highlight on the text.
Today, the students are working independently to answer "Review & Assess" questions about the text. They will have a review on Monday and then a test and essay assignment on Sundiata next week.
Then...we finally transition into our study of tragic heroes and Oedipus! :)
LDC3
In this class, we completed Unit 1: Mysteries, and the students worked on a review sheet for a couple of days. Today they took their 50-question test.
I'm excited because our next unit is on "Survival," and I'm going to teach Elie Wiesel's Night for the first time. I was nervous about teaching a new novel, but then I found this unit plan that comes complete with supplementary handouts and a daily guide to the lessons! YAY! I'm going to review this and start planning accordingly.
This teacher's daily plan got me thinking, though: Why don't I have daily plans for my units? Why have I never thought of doing something like that?! That would make planning so much easier. I could add or subtract as needed, but this would ensure that I don't forget something important, something that worked really well, or a necessary supplementary text that should be included in the lessons. These would also help me ensure that I stay on track (as much as possible) with that course's pacing guide. So, I've decided that I'm going to try to put these together this year as I go through each unit.
LA2
...and so on and so on. This is how I feel about LA2. Each chapter is the same: intro activites, read chapter, answer questions, activity workbook, grammar workbook, writing assignment, quiz. Each week is exactly the same. In that strict plan, though, there are small victories for each student. Today, I stood next to a student who was supposed to underline the letters that make the "f" sound in the word biography. Something wasn't clicking in her brain: she tried to underline the whole word, then she tried to write the letter "f" above the word, then she tried to re-write the word on the line next to it. Finally, after I pronounced the word v.e.r.y s.l.o.w.l.y, underlined the "ph" in the word, then pointed to the next word (elephant), and pronounced it "el-e-PHHHHHHHH-ant," she had one of those OHHHH! moments, and underlined the "ph" in that word and the 3 following words. That's what it's all about: taking the time to help them jump those little hurdles.
I wish the county would go back to regulating the size of ESL classes (esp. these lower levels) so more situations like this could happen. It's difficult to spend that kind of time with a student when all the rest are so needy.
JR AMER LIT
We are wrapping up our study of early explorers this week. The students have been working on open book test reviews, and they will take their test on Monday; then on Tues and Wed, they will work on their Unit 2 essay. Next Thurs and Fri, I'll give a presentation on Puritans. After that, we'll be deep into our study and Puritans, and we'll read "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," which will lead us into The Crucible.
I thought I would have time this week to start looking at my plans for The Crucible, but LDC3 took up all of my planning time (review and test). So, next week, I'll take a look at my old materials and start planning my sequence of lessons for our study of the play. It's a great time of year when I am teaching Oedipus and The Crucible at the same time! :)
This week's the bad/the good:
The bad: I made the mistake of waiting until the end of the unit to make the test for LDC3. This took days of organization and creating during my planning time. I need to remember to make test questions as we go through each part of the unit. Since there is no plan for that class, I have to make everything myself. This year, I'm trying to establish some kind of curriculum so I don't have to recreat the class every year.
The good: I learned a lesson this week about controlling my temper. A few students in my LDC3 class were not seated at the bell, so I assigned each of them a 15 min detention (they'd been warned about this on several previous occasions). I heard one of the girls complaining, "She can't give us detention for no reason...." I turned to her and said, "It's not for 'no reason.' You've been warned and you know the rules." Now, I would have continued by saying what I was thinking, "I don't appreciate your eye rolls; if you'd put more thought to your studies than socializing...; maybe you don't understand that rules apply to you, too...." but another student called my name and had a valid question about the assignment for that day, so I turned to him. Later that period, one of the detention students asked if he could serve his time on Monday because he can stay on Fridays. I said yes, and the girl asked, "Oh, that's an option?"
Feeling better now that class was going smoothly, I jokingly said, "I don't know about you, because you gave me attitude. I think I deserve an apology."
The girl smiled sincerely and said, "I'm sorry Ms. Greene."
If I would have had the opportunity to let my emotions get the better of me, I would have embarassed the girl, and my whole day would have a black cloud hanging over it. Instead, we both learned lessons about appropriate behavior. (By the way, this story is embarassing to tell. I can't believe I'm still learning these things!)
Friday, September 23, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Teaching Proper Pair/Group Learning
In all of my classes, I'm trying to incorporate more pair or group learning. I've found, in some cases, that I'm having to teach my students how to work properly as a team. Most pairs/groups do very well. There have been those teams who do not perform well together. I've found two main reasons for this lack of productivity:
1. The individuals have a personal aversion to each other (for whatever reason), and do not want to work together.
2. The individuals are too friendly and get off task easily.
3. The individuals refuse to communicate because of lack of fluency with English, embarassment because of their language ability, etc.
4. The classic: one person does all the work and everyone else copies his/her paper.
In response to questions like: "Miss, can I work by myself?" or "Miss, can I switch partners or work with that group over there?" I've come up with 3 rules--The 3 C's of Team Work:
1. Communication (about the topic)
2. Cooperation (to stay on task)
3. Collaboration (to do the work)
If they do these 3 things within their team, they will be successful in the end. Plus, these three rules take care of all of the problems listed above! I tell them that they MUST learn to do things things to be successful English speakers and students. If I see a group not following the rules, I threaten them with a lower participation grade for that day. (I don't actually give participation grades, but the threat works anyway. LOL)
So, with that in mind, here's what's going on in my classes this week:
SOPH WORLD LIT
I thought we were moving into Oedipus the King, but I forgot that we have to do Sundiata and African proverbs first! So, this week the students took their test on Gilgamesh and "Noah," and were then introduced to the next unit: Epic Heroes and Tragic Heroes. Today and tomorrow, they are working in small groups (3 people), to learn about proverbs. In the text, there are 4-5 proverbs each for 6 different African countries. So, the students are choosing 1 proverb from each country, discussing what each means, and creating a table on poster paper to show their understanding of that proverb. On the table, they list: the proverb, their translation of the proverb (its lesson), and a picture to represent the lesson.
They are actually doing much better at the translations than I thought they would! It's been fun to listen to their conversations about phrases like: "One falsehood spoils a thousand truths." :) Their understanding of proverbs will assist them as we read Sundiata in this unit. The epic story teaches a couple of important lessons through the use of proverbs.
LA II
These students have been working on the usual textbook, activity book, grammar book, and writing assignments. Their focus on their work since the seat assignments has improved a bit, and I'm realizing that there are a few students whose language ability is FAR below most others in the class. Classes that contain students with such varied levels of ability are taxing on the teacher because 1/3 of the class is yelling out "Miss! Miss! Come here please!" because they have questions about improving their vocabulary, extending their sentences, and other big language concepts. Another 1/3 of the class is quietly on task, doing what is asked of them, making a few mistakes, and needing minimal guidance. The lower 1/3 of the class is yelling out "Miss! Miss! I don't get this!" or are sitting as quietly as possible so the teacher doesn't see that their assignment is all wrong because they had to write something--anything--just to look like they understood and could keep up with everyone else. It can get frustrating, and sometimes I catch myself getting irritated. But as soon as I think of how hard they are all trying, and the fact that they are at least on task, I can take a breath and focus on helping each student in the way he or she needs.
LDC III
This class did not do well on their prepositional phrases handout earlier in the week, so I handed back their graded papers and asked them all to do corrections on a separate piece of paper. But THIS TIME, they had to label the parts of speech in the preposition phrase (e.g. prep, article modifier, noun). I do not play when it comes to grammar. Especially when it's something basic like prepositions. Come on!
Anyhow, today the class separated into pairs to do an introduction activity to a supplemental text called "The Navajo." The handout asked them to look at different parts of the book (the title, TOC, headings, glossary...) and answer questions from that basic information. It was interesting to see how many students did not know what a "heading" was. These types of activities may seem basic, but are obviously necessary to help them learn/remember how much information is provided in texts.
There were a couple of pairs that weren't working well together, so I had to manage those situations and remind them about the rules of the 3 C's of Team Work. In the end, though, they all did a great job of completing the assignment as a team. Those who need a bit more practice will get it tomorrow because they'll continue working with their partner to read Chapter 1 aloud and complete a comprehension handout. :)
JR AMERICAN LIT
Students in this class will finish their autobiography projects this week and turn them in on Friday. Using Google Docs to help the students edit their work as they went turned out to be very successful. I was able to pinpoint recurring problems for various students and offer one-on-one tutoring to assist them and help them improve. For instance, one student had whole paragraphs that only included commas until the end of the paragraph! I sat her down and gave a brief run-down of proper punctuation for simple, compound, and complex sentence. Then, she looked at her own paragraphs and inserted appropriate punctuation where needed. Not all students particpated in the process, but that was their choice. Those who did participate were very excited about the opportunity to improve their writing by using the process of proofreading and revising.
As for the content of the class, we've been studying journals and narrative accounts of the earliest explorers and settlers to North America. The texts contain somewhat antiquated language, so I've given students the adapted versions from the Reader's Guide text companion. These are great because there are questions that make the students analyze sections of text as they read. It slows them down, and forces them to focus. Right now, they are working on of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford: his narrative account about the journey on the Mayflower and their first experiences in the New World. Next week, we'll finish this unit with a slave narrtive by O. Equiano. This is one that the students often have strong reactions to because Equiano was such an impressive person and talented writer. Even today, his descriptions of his experiences get the students talking about how unfair it was for Equiano and others like him!
This Week's The Bad/The Good:
The Bad: I am SO TIRED of telling students to sit down in their chairs, get out their materials, and be ready to start class when the bell rings. Even if I am standing at the front of the room, obviously ready to speak, students don't seem to understand the cues and continue walking around, carrying on conversation, stuffing their faces with chips/candy, etc. I've had to start handing out detentions for people who aren't seated at the ring of the bell! I told them: "The bell is not a magical sound that only teachers can hear. You hear it, too. It's more for you than for me, so be seated and ready to learn as soon as you hear it!" So aggrivating!!!
The Good: I've had quite a few former students contact me or stop by in the past couple of weeks. One sent me a Facebook message that said: "You were the best teacher I ever had. I know that now. And I regret sleeping so much in your class." LOL :) Well, at least he finally learned the lesson, right? A couple others have stopped by just to talk about their lives and how things are going. Others have contacted me for letters of recommendation for jobs or college. On days when my CLASSES are not going so well, these are the things I should think of because being a Lit/ESL teacher is not just about teaching content. It's also about caring for these individuals and being another adult who helps guide them.
1. The individuals have a personal aversion to each other (for whatever reason), and do not want to work together.
2. The individuals are too friendly and get off task easily.
3. The individuals refuse to communicate because of lack of fluency with English, embarassment because of their language ability, etc.
4. The classic: one person does all the work and everyone else copies his/her paper.
In response to questions like: "Miss, can I work by myself?" or "Miss, can I switch partners or work with that group over there?" I've come up with 3 rules--The 3 C's of Team Work:
1. Communication (about the topic)
2. Cooperation (to stay on task)
3. Collaboration (to do the work)
If they do these 3 things within their team, they will be successful in the end. Plus, these three rules take care of all of the problems listed above! I tell them that they MUST learn to do things things to be successful English speakers and students. If I see a group not following the rules, I threaten them with a lower participation grade for that day. (I don't actually give participation grades, but the threat works anyway. LOL)
So, with that in mind, here's what's going on in my classes this week:
SOPH WORLD LIT
I thought we were moving into Oedipus the King, but I forgot that we have to do Sundiata and African proverbs first! So, this week the students took their test on Gilgamesh and "Noah," and were then introduced to the next unit: Epic Heroes and Tragic Heroes. Today and tomorrow, they are working in small groups (3 people), to learn about proverbs. In the text, there are 4-5 proverbs each for 6 different African countries. So, the students are choosing 1 proverb from each country, discussing what each means, and creating a table on poster paper to show their understanding of that proverb. On the table, they list: the proverb, their translation of the proverb (its lesson), and a picture to represent the lesson.
They are actually doing much better at the translations than I thought they would! It's been fun to listen to their conversations about phrases like: "One falsehood spoils a thousand truths." :) Their understanding of proverbs will assist them as we read Sundiata in this unit. The epic story teaches a couple of important lessons through the use of proverbs.
LA II
These students have been working on the usual textbook, activity book, grammar book, and writing assignments. Their focus on their work since the seat assignments has improved a bit, and I'm realizing that there are a few students whose language ability is FAR below most others in the class. Classes that contain students with such varied levels of ability are taxing on the teacher because 1/3 of the class is yelling out "Miss! Miss! Come here please!" because they have questions about improving their vocabulary, extending their sentences, and other big language concepts. Another 1/3 of the class is quietly on task, doing what is asked of them, making a few mistakes, and needing minimal guidance. The lower 1/3 of the class is yelling out "Miss! Miss! I don't get this!" or are sitting as quietly as possible so the teacher doesn't see that their assignment is all wrong because they had to write something--anything--just to look like they understood and could keep up with everyone else. It can get frustrating, and sometimes I catch myself getting irritated. But as soon as I think of how hard they are all trying, and the fact that they are at least on task, I can take a breath and focus on helping each student in the way he or she needs.
LDC III
This class did not do well on their prepositional phrases handout earlier in the week, so I handed back their graded papers and asked them all to do corrections on a separate piece of paper. But THIS TIME, they had to label the parts of speech in the preposition phrase (e.g. prep, article modifier, noun). I do not play when it comes to grammar. Especially when it's something basic like prepositions. Come on!
Anyhow, today the class separated into pairs to do an introduction activity to a supplemental text called "The Navajo." The handout asked them to look at different parts of the book (the title, TOC, headings, glossary...) and answer questions from that basic information. It was interesting to see how many students did not know what a "heading" was. These types of activities may seem basic, but are obviously necessary to help them learn/remember how much information is provided in texts.
There were a couple of pairs that weren't working well together, so I had to manage those situations and remind them about the rules of the 3 C's of Team Work. In the end, though, they all did a great job of completing the assignment as a team. Those who need a bit more practice will get it tomorrow because they'll continue working with their partner to read Chapter 1 aloud and complete a comprehension handout. :)
JR AMERICAN LIT
Students in this class will finish their autobiography projects this week and turn them in on Friday. Using Google Docs to help the students edit their work as they went turned out to be very successful. I was able to pinpoint recurring problems for various students and offer one-on-one tutoring to assist them and help them improve. For instance, one student had whole paragraphs that only included commas until the end of the paragraph! I sat her down and gave a brief run-down of proper punctuation for simple, compound, and complex sentence. Then, she looked at her own paragraphs and inserted appropriate punctuation where needed. Not all students particpated in the process, but that was their choice. Those who did participate were very excited about the opportunity to improve their writing by using the process of proofreading and revising.
As for the content of the class, we've been studying journals and narrative accounts of the earliest explorers and settlers to North America. The texts contain somewhat antiquated language, so I've given students the adapted versions from the Reader's Guide text companion. These are great because there are questions that make the students analyze sections of text as they read. It slows them down, and forces them to focus. Right now, they are working on of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford: his narrative account about the journey on the Mayflower and their first experiences in the New World. Next week, we'll finish this unit with a slave narrtive by O. Equiano. This is one that the students often have strong reactions to because Equiano was such an impressive person and talented writer. Even today, his descriptions of his experiences get the students talking about how unfair it was for Equiano and others like him!
This Week's The Bad/The Good:
The Bad: I am SO TIRED of telling students to sit down in their chairs, get out their materials, and be ready to start class when the bell rings. Even if I am standing at the front of the room, obviously ready to speak, students don't seem to understand the cues and continue walking around, carrying on conversation, stuffing their faces with chips/candy, etc. I've had to start handing out detentions for people who aren't seated at the ring of the bell! I told them: "The bell is not a magical sound that only teachers can hear. You hear it, too. It's more for you than for me, so be seated and ready to learn as soon as you hear it!" So aggrivating!!!
The Good: I've had quite a few former students contact me or stop by in the past couple of weeks. One sent me a Facebook message that said: "You were the best teacher I ever had. I know that now. And I regret sleeping so much in your class." LOL :) Well, at least he finally learned the lesson, right? A couple others have stopped by just to talk about their lives and how things are going. Others have contacted me for letters of recommendation for jobs or college. On days when my CLASSES are not going so well, these are the things I should think of because being a Lit/ESL teacher is not just about teaching content. It's also about caring for these individuals and being another adult who helps guide them.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Piles, Piles and Piles
We are in the 5th week of the school year, and my desk perpetually has 5-6 piles of papers covering it. Of course, I know what is in each pile. But when my department chair came into my classroom this morning, I felt momentarily embarrassed by my "lack of organization." To make matters worse: continuously repeating in my mind are the words of one of my colleagues who dropped a nugget of advice on me at the Literacy Institute this summer: "To teach as long as I have (40 years!), you have to be organized. If you look disorganized, the kids see it, and it affects their respect for you and what you do." ...Yikes.
I am generally a very thorough grader, but I often do hand back papers long after I should have. Sometimes, when a stack has been sitting on my desk for way too long (a week and a half to two weeks), I know I'm never going to take the time to grade it with care, so I just slap a check or check minus at the top of it and hand it back to the kids, or I give up and toss it in the recycle box. For sanity's sake, though, it's ok that the students sometimes get the practice without a grade. The really important papers are graded promptly and carefully, but those keep multiplying faster than I can keep up!
Here's what's going on in my classes this week:
SOPH WORLD LIT
We finished our study of Gilgamesh and Noah, and the students worked on their compare/contrast essays on "the flood story." I haven't graded these yet, but this will be the first sample of these students' essay writing ability. As I grade them, I will have a better idea about what we need to focus on in our writing practice. The students have also been working on an open book/note test review that is provided by the textbook publisher. These are higher-level thinking questions, and require the students to answer a multiple choice question about the text and then provide evidence to support the answer they've chosen. I really like these. The students sometimes get frustrated because the questions are harder than the questions in the book, but I offer as much assistance as I can and even let them work in pairs. Furthermore, the students had to (as I mentioned in my previous post) use the key words of our "word wall" in a paragraph explaining what they learned in this unit, and they had to come up with 10 questions that would make good test questions for this material. To help them prepare even more, I put a list of materials they should study over the weekend. Monday is their test (I guess I should finish making that, huh?!) and Tuesday we'll start the next unit.
LA 2
This class received a new seating chart this week. On an Activity Workbook assignment, most of the class scored 40's-low 60's. They are constantly off task, talking in their native languages, and disruptive of each others' learning. So, I moved them to seats that I felt would separate the talkers, combine those who wanted to practice their English with speakers of other languages, and isolate those who constantly disrupt others. They've been in these seats for about 3 days now, and it is working wonderfully! There are 2 girls in particular (one from the Ivory Coast and one from Peru) who have the highest grades and are the most motivated to learn English. I placed them next to each other, and my heart just about burst when I saw how well they were working together today! :) I will continue to work with this class on their behavior and patience with the language.
LDC 3
This week, we read a chapter in the Visions C book called "The Mystery of the Cliff Dwellers," and informative text about an ancient Native American culture. The students completed all required work for the chapter (adding to the piles on my desk! LOL), and I wanted something fun that they could do to practice their essay writing skills. So, I went to the Media Center and picked up 8 books on ancient cultures (Aztecs, Amazons, Romans...). Then, at the beginning of class, I walked them through the basic organization for an essay (components of an Intro, Body, and Conclusion) and told them, "You are going to pretend that you and your small group of 3-4 people are researchers who have to write a professional report on an ancient culture that you'd been studying. So, flip through your book, find a few things about the culture that you think are interesting, and follow the essay format to write your report." The students liked that they got to choose which culture they wanted (though, there were some fights over who got Ancient Egypt!), and they worked really well, explaining to each other and talking about the different parts of an essay. They'll finish the assignment on Monday, and we'll see how this introduction to essay writing went for them. :)
JR AMERICAN LIT
As we enter our study of the earliest explorers and settlers in American history, I showed the students and introductory slide show presentation about the 3 forms of travel books we'll study in this unit: journal, narrative account, and slave narrative. As I talked about Christopher Columbus, John Smith, Jamestown, Plymouth, and early slave trade, the students were happy to chime in with facts they'd already learned in their American History classes. They asked some interesting questions, too!: "If Columbus thought he was in Asia, how could he have named his book 'Journal of the First Voyage to AMERICA'?" I'd honestly never even thought about that before. LOL Whenever the students ask questions and I don't know the answer, I tell them: "You find out, report back to me, and I'll give you 5 points extra credit." So far, at least 4 students have earned extra credit, and the students are interested in asking questions! They know the question has to stump me, though (and I know almost everything! haha!), so it has become a little competative. We'll move through this unit in a couple of weeks' time and lay the foundations for the next unit on Puritanism.
This Week's The Bad/The Good:
The Bad: I had to deal with the rare occasion when my personal strife began to affect my attitude in the classroom. Because I was dealing with personal unhappiness and frustration (which I'm blessed to say doesn't happen very ofen in my life), I felt myself being short with the students, being frustrated with my performance, and being negative toward everyone around me. It was a struggle to bury that the best I could and try to be nice, supportive, and keep a smile on my face. What performers we sometimes have to be. It was exhausting!
The Good: I am really please with how the new seating chart is working out for my LA 2 students. I hope they continue to stay focused and pratice patience when learning something new. They are so quick to feel frustrated and give in to distraction at this level of English ability. I'll continue to encourage them and assist them so they'll feel more motivated to do better.
I am generally a very thorough grader, but I often do hand back papers long after I should have. Sometimes, when a stack has been sitting on my desk for way too long (a week and a half to two weeks), I know I'm never going to take the time to grade it with care, so I just slap a check or check minus at the top of it and hand it back to the kids, or I give up and toss it in the recycle box. For sanity's sake, though, it's ok that the students sometimes get the practice without a grade. The really important papers are graded promptly and carefully, but those keep multiplying faster than I can keep up!
Here's what's going on in my classes this week:
SOPH WORLD LIT
We finished our study of Gilgamesh and Noah, and the students worked on their compare/contrast essays on "the flood story." I haven't graded these yet, but this will be the first sample of these students' essay writing ability. As I grade them, I will have a better idea about what we need to focus on in our writing practice. The students have also been working on an open book/note test review that is provided by the textbook publisher. These are higher-level thinking questions, and require the students to answer a multiple choice question about the text and then provide evidence to support the answer they've chosen. I really like these. The students sometimes get frustrated because the questions are harder than the questions in the book, but I offer as much assistance as I can and even let them work in pairs. Furthermore, the students had to (as I mentioned in my previous post) use the key words of our "word wall" in a paragraph explaining what they learned in this unit, and they had to come up with 10 questions that would make good test questions for this material. To help them prepare even more, I put a list of materials they should study over the weekend. Monday is their test (I guess I should finish making that, huh?!) and Tuesday we'll start the next unit.
LA 2
This class received a new seating chart this week. On an Activity Workbook assignment, most of the class scored 40's-low 60's. They are constantly off task, talking in their native languages, and disruptive of each others' learning. So, I moved them to seats that I felt would separate the talkers, combine those who wanted to practice their English with speakers of other languages, and isolate those who constantly disrupt others. They've been in these seats for about 3 days now, and it is working wonderfully! There are 2 girls in particular (one from the Ivory Coast and one from Peru) who have the highest grades and are the most motivated to learn English. I placed them next to each other, and my heart just about burst when I saw how well they were working together today! :) I will continue to work with this class on their behavior and patience with the language.
LDC 3
This week, we read a chapter in the Visions C book called "The Mystery of the Cliff Dwellers," and informative text about an ancient Native American culture. The students completed all required work for the chapter (adding to the piles on my desk! LOL), and I wanted something fun that they could do to practice their essay writing skills. So, I went to the Media Center and picked up 8 books on ancient cultures (Aztecs, Amazons, Romans...). Then, at the beginning of class, I walked them through the basic organization for an essay (components of an Intro, Body, and Conclusion) and told them, "You are going to pretend that you and your small group of 3-4 people are researchers who have to write a professional report on an ancient culture that you'd been studying. So, flip through your book, find a few things about the culture that you think are interesting, and follow the essay format to write your report." The students liked that they got to choose which culture they wanted (though, there were some fights over who got Ancient Egypt!), and they worked really well, explaining to each other and talking about the different parts of an essay. They'll finish the assignment on Monday, and we'll see how this introduction to essay writing went for them. :)
JR AMERICAN LIT
As we enter our study of the earliest explorers and settlers in American history, I showed the students and introductory slide show presentation about the 3 forms of travel books we'll study in this unit: journal, narrative account, and slave narrative. As I talked about Christopher Columbus, John Smith, Jamestown, Plymouth, and early slave trade, the students were happy to chime in with facts they'd already learned in their American History classes. They asked some interesting questions, too!: "If Columbus thought he was in Asia, how could he have named his book 'Journal of the First Voyage to AMERICA'?" I'd honestly never even thought about that before. LOL Whenever the students ask questions and I don't know the answer, I tell them: "You find out, report back to me, and I'll give you 5 points extra credit." So far, at least 4 students have earned extra credit, and the students are interested in asking questions! They know the question has to stump me, though (and I know almost everything! haha!), so it has become a little competative. We'll move through this unit in a couple of weeks' time and lay the foundations for the next unit on Puritanism.
This Week's The Bad/The Good:
The Bad: I had to deal with the rare occasion when my personal strife began to affect my attitude in the classroom. Because I was dealing with personal unhappiness and frustration (which I'm blessed to say doesn't happen very ofen in my life), I felt myself being short with the students, being frustrated with my performance, and being negative toward everyone around me. It was a struggle to bury that the best I could and try to be nice, supportive, and keep a smile on my face. What performers we sometimes have to be. It was exhausting!
The Good: I am really please with how the new seating chart is working out for my LA 2 students. I hope they continue to stay focused and pratice patience when learning something new. They are so quick to feel frustrated and give in to distraction at this level of English ability. I'll continue to encourage them and assist them so they'll feel more motivated to do better.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Open House AKA Extra Planning Time
As an ESL teacher, I've become used to the fact that "Open House" night is an extra 2-3 hours I spend at school in the evening planning lessons for the next couple of weeks. Parents just don't show up. At best, I get 3-4 of my students, and 2-3 of my advisees. That's about it. I understand that there is a lot keeping ESL parents from the school in the evening, but it's just another example of how very little parents are involved in school these days. Those numbers also speak to the amount of parent contacts I get during the year, too.
Anyhow, I'm definitely going to plan out the next month of lessons for all 4 of my courses as soon as I finish typing this! :) At least that will get me well-organized for the next few weeks, and it will be less stress on me.
Here's what's going on in my classes:
SOPH WORLD LIT
We are just about finished with Gilgamesh and Genesis. I'm doing something new this year: I've separated my units into sequential themes and put up a poster-sized paper that says, "How It All Began: An Archetypal Foundation." On that poster, I've put words like "Archetype" "Epic" "Tragic Flaw" "Immortality" "Flood"... Yes, it's like a word wall. As a review before the test next week, I'm going to ask the students to define these words the best they can from memory, and then use them all to write a long paragraph explaining what we studied with these two stories. :) They'll hate it, but it'll be SO good for them! Tomorrow, they'll start planning for their Utnapishtim/Noah compare/contrast essay. That way, when they get back from Labor Day weekend, they'll have their brainstorming and notes all ready to go!
We are all kind of excited to be moving past this period of literature, though. It's exciting at first, but it gets old very quickly. Next up: Oedipus...and I ROCK at Oedipus. :) (The kids like it, too, which is always a plus!).
LDC 3
We are just finishing our unit on Mystery. We read a Sherlock Holmes story from one of the novel adaptations the ESL dept. has. It was "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." The kids took notes and were little detectives as they read. As previously posted, they used detective story terms, and followed the clues. We even talked about plot and used Jim Burke's plot diagram and the students' notes to map out the plot of the story. We had some good discussions about rising action and climax. I was able to clarify some things for the students, and some of them made observations about how inaccurate plot maps are because the "climax is NEVER in the MIDDLE of the story. It's always near the end!" Very astute. :)
I'm not sure what our next unit will be, but I've found that these students (all freshman) are in great need of some writing skills. I'll be introducing them to DOL and chunk writing very soon. :) Mwahahahahahahahaha!
LA 2
This class is adorable. Most of the kids are hard workers, and my 2 trouble students have been removed from the class, so it goes much smoother now. My worst problem is all of the talking! These kids are so quick to start up side conversations! I've been able to tamp it down as of late, though, by sending one student in particular to do her work outside when needed; and walking around the whole time to help individuals as needed.
The students haven't figured out how to study for the quizzes I give them (if they'd only take my advice and study 2 specific documents each time, they'd be all set!), but they'll learn soon enough.
JR AMERICAN LIT
We just concluded our unit on Native American literature (origin myths) and the students did relatively well. There were a few disappointments with the unit test, but it was expected. I'm a hard tester because I give them the same tests any other CP (and sometimes Honors) students would get. They'll catch on, and they'll be that much more prepared for the Graduation Test and End of Course Test at the end of the year.
From here, we move into the early explorers and Puritans--one of my favorite units to teach because we do The Crucible, and it is WONDERFUL. :) This is a huge class, and they're pretty rowdy, so I'm hoping they keep it together enough to focus and enjoy. I can always tell them that we won't watch the movie if they misbehave...that always does the trick. Ha!
Meantime, these students are still working on their autobiographies every Friday in the computer lab. Using Google Docs so they can share their documents, and I can edit and comment online has presented some challenges; but it's been an overall useful tool.
This Week's The Bad/The Good
The Bad: Even though I'm getting my 7 hrs of sleep each night, I'm starting to still feel tired in the morning. Has the school year already worn me down?
The Good: My students asked me why I smile when I "try to be mean." I guess this means--even though I get irritated with them--I'm still having fun. :)
Anyhow, I'm definitely going to plan out the next month of lessons for all 4 of my courses as soon as I finish typing this! :) At least that will get me well-organized for the next few weeks, and it will be less stress on me.
Here's what's going on in my classes:
SOPH WORLD LIT
We are just about finished with Gilgamesh and Genesis. I'm doing something new this year: I've separated my units into sequential themes and put up a poster-sized paper that says, "How It All Began: An Archetypal Foundation." On that poster, I've put words like "Archetype" "Epic" "Tragic Flaw" "Immortality" "Flood"... Yes, it's like a word wall. As a review before the test next week, I'm going to ask the students to define these words the best they can from memory, and then use them all to write a long paragraph explaining what we studied with these two stories. :) They'll hate it, but it'll be SO good for them! Tomorrow, they'll start planning for their Utnapishtim/Noah compare/contrast essay. That way, when they get back from Labor Day weekend, they'll have their brainstorming and notes all ready to go!
We are all kind of excited to be moving past this period of literature, though. It's exciting at first, but it gets old very quickly. Next up: Oedipus...and I ROCK at Oedipus. :) (The kids like it, too, which is always a plus!).
LDC 3
We are just finishing our unit on Mystery. We read a Sherlock Holmes story from one of the novel adaptations the ESL dept. has. It was "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." The kids took notes and were little detectives as they read. As previously posted, they used detective story terms, and followed the clues. We even talked about plot and used Jim Burke's plot diagram and the students' notes to map out the plot of the story. We had some good discussions about rising action and climax. I was able to clarify some things for the students, and some of them made observations about how inaccurate plot maps are because the "climax is NEVER in the MIDDLE of the story. It's always near the end!" Very astute. :)
I'm not sure what our next unit will be, but I've found that these students (all freshman) are in great need of some writing skills. I'll be introducing them to DOL and chunk writing very soon. :) Mwahahahahahahahaha!
LA 2
This class is adorable. Most of the kids are hard workers, and my 2 trouble students have been removed from the class, so it goes much smoother now. My worst problem is all of the talking! These kids are so quick to start up side conversations! I've been able to tamp it down as of late, though, by sending one student in particular to do her work outside when needed; and walking around the whole time to help individuals as needed.
The students haven't figured out how to study for the quizzes I give them (if they'd only take my advice and study 2 specific documents each time, they'd be all set!), but they'll learn soon enough.
JR AMERICAN LIT
We just concluded our unit on Native American literature (origin myths) and the students did relatively well. There were a few disappointments with the unit test, but it was expected. I'm a hard tester because I give them the same tests any other CP (and sometimes Honors) students would get. They'll catch on, and they'll be that much more prepared for the Graduation Test and End of Course Test at the end of the year.
From here, we move into the early explorers and Puritans--one of my favorite units to teach because we do The Crucible, and it is WONDERFUL. :) This is a huge class, and they're pretty rowdy, so I'm hoping they keep it together enough to focus and enjoy. I can always tell them that we won't watch the movie if they misbehave...that always does the trick. Ha!
Meantime, these students are still working on their autobiographies every Friday in the computer lab. Using Google Docs so they can share their documents, and I can edit and comment online has presented some challenges; but it's been an overall useful tool.
This Week's The Bad/The Good
The Bad: Even though I'm getting my 7 hrs of sleep each night, I'm starting to still feel tired in the morning. Has the school year already worn me down?
The Good: My students asked me why I smile when I "try to be mean." I guess this means--even though I get irritated with them--I'm still having fun. :)
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