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.
Showing posts with label group work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label group work. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
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.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Teaching Caesar for the First Time
We're supposed to teach selections from Dante's Inferno as a lead-in to the Renaissance, but I think my students actually need to know who Brutus and Cassius are before we talk about how treachery will land you in the 9th level of hell. So, I am attempting to teach Julius Caesar for the first time this year. I usually teach A Midsummer Night's Dream for our Shakespeare unit, but Caesar is more applicable to cross-curricular studies. So, I'm going against what the county says we should teach, and I'm doing what I think is best.
Never having taught this play, I found myself scrambling for lesson ideas. Thankfully, I found a lesson plan database that has been compiled and maintained by the wonderful people at Folger Shakespeare Library. I've adapted some of the lessons from this site already, and they have been great!
For instance, to introduce some of the themes in the book, I used this pre-reading activity. My students broke off into groups and came up with a list of 10 qualities of a good friend and 5 infractions that could end a friendship. Then, we came together as a whole class, and compiled all of the groups' ideas on what our top 10 qualities and top 5 infractions should be. With these lists, we created a "Friendship Constitution" and I made a poster for each class. Each of the classes had similar qualities and infractions, but there were some differences in the particular words they chose, so I typed up a different one for the respective classes. When I showed their posters to them, I said, "We'll use these constitutions to discuss what went wrong in Caesar's friendships that eventually led to his downfall." Everyone wanted to sign their constitutions, so we did that, too. :)
Also, I noticed that Lesson 5 of the Folger lessons focuses on persuasion. I like the lesson they have, but I didn't have time for it. My students do need more information about persuasion, though because they will focus on persuasion next year for the High School Graduation Writing Test. So, I made a handout on which I listed Pathos, Logos, and Ethos; I gave an explanation of each technique; and I gave elements used in each technique. On the back of the handout, I copied Cassius's two speeches to Brutus from Act I, Scene 2 (when he tries to change Brutus's perception of Caesar). Then, I told the students that their task would be to write a chunk paragraph in response to this prompt: Which persuasive technique does Cassius mainly use in his speeches to Brutus in Act I, Scene 2? No, I'll be able to evaluate each students' understanding of the characters and their motivation, organization skills, and level of ability when it comes to analysis. I think chunk writing is going to be of great benefit to their writing and analytical skills!
This week, we only got to Act I, Scene 2. I'm planning on getting through all of Act II next week; but with the long weekend, I don't know if it will happen. Oh well...at least I don't have Benchmark Tests to worry about this semester (the county realized they were ill-prepaired and not a fair measure of student achievement), so I can take my sweet time with Caesar!
Never having taught this play, I found myself scrambling for lesson ideas. Thankfully, I found a lesson plan database that has been compiled and maintained by the wonderful people at Folger Shakespeare Library. I've adapted some of the lessons from this site already, and they have been great!
For instance, to introduce some of the themes in the book, I used this pre-reading activity. My students broke off into groups and came up with a list of 10 qualities of a good friend and 5 infractions that could end a friendship. Then, we came together as a whole class, and compiled all of the groups' ideas on what our top 10 qualities and top 5 infractions should be. With these lists, we created a "Friendship Constitution" and I made a poster for each class. Each of the classes had similar qualities and infractions, but there were some differences in the particular words they chose, so I typed up a different one for the respective classes. When I showed their posters to them, I said, "We'll use these constitutions to discuss what went wrong in Caesar's friendships that eventually led to his downfall." Everyone wanted to sign their constitutions, so we did that, too. :)
Also, I noticed that Lesson 5 of the Folger lessons focuses on persuasion. I like the lesson they have, but I didn't have time for it. My students do need more information about persuasion, though because they will focus on persuasion next year for the High School Graduation Writing Test. So, I made a handout on which I listed Pathos, Logos, and Ethos; I gave an explanation of each technique; and I gave elements used in each technique. On the back of the handout, I copied Cassius's two speeches to Brutus from Act I, Scene 2 (when he tries to change Brutus's perception of Caesar). Then, I told the students that their task would be to write a chunk paragraph in response to this prompt: Which persuasive technique does Cassius mainly use in his speeches to Brutus in Act I, Scene 2? No, I'll be able to evaluate each students' understanding of the characters and their motivation, organization skills, and level of ability when it comes to analysis. I think chunk writing is going to be of great benefit to their writing and analytical skills!
This week, we only got to Act I, Scene 2. I'm planning on getting through all of Act II next week; but with the long weekend, I don't know if it will happen. Oh well...at least I don't have Benchmark Tests to worry about this semester (the county realized they were ill-prepaired and not a fair measure of student achievement), so I can take my sweet time with Caesar!
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