Journey Through the First Year

This week I was observed by my principal and vice-principal.  Before the observation I had to submit a guide detailing my lesson plan.  This guide included information about what I was teaching, why I was teaching the lesson, and the standards supported by the lesson.

When developing the lesson for the day I was determined to produce a lesson plan true to my class.  This particular class is full of seniors who are energetic, rebellious, and argumentative.  Ultimately, the lesson I developed stayed true to teaching these seniors based on these qualities; however, when the administration appeared within our classroom walls, the students completely clammed up.  Suddenly they were very accepting of what I had to say.  No, they went beyond that, what I had to say was the truth and the only truth.  Not prevalent was their typical questioning, alternative opinions and overall debate.

This was frustrating on many levels, but I think what concerned me the most was the fact that the students felt they had to sit quietly and not question my views in order to be seen as “well-behaved”.  My administration is very supportive and would have relished in witnessing a lively debate.  So why were the students so afraid?  I think too often teachers believe a quiet classroom is a well maintained, productive and disciplined classroom.  I would agree in part but just as often a loud, animated class is just as maintained, productive and disciplined.

I need to get my students to understand that there is no right or wrong response to literature as long as you supply evidence from the text.  Therefore, my views of a particular book are not necessarily the right or only answer.  We all have different life experiences and different beliefs that help shape how we view a text: the characters, plot, theme, etc.  That’s what makes literature so much fun; no two people will view it exactly the same way.

Now if only I could get my students to realize that.

It always amazes me how much engagement comes from merely incorporating technology into my classroom.  Today my students began a webquest I created, using a Weebly website, for the A Thousand Splendid Suns unit.  It is my first attempt at a webquest so there are some things I already recognize as needing to be changed for the next go-around, but I will blog about that at the completion of the assignment.

What really caught my attention was how engaged my students were in it.  Generally my fifth hour seniors are a rather rowdy group: very outspoken, very social, very senioritis.  When they initially heard they would be completing a webquest they verbally complained about the assignment, of course because that meant work on their part.  Once they started reading the first website though things changed.  

The first part of the webquest was to visit the author, Khaled Hosseini’s website.  They were to read the question and answer portion regarding the writing of the novel.  They used his responses to answer the questions that were part of the assignment.  They followed this same format to learn and answer questions about Afghanistan.  Because of the wide array of links that I provided (some about writing, politics, social issues and life in general) every student was able to find something that was interesting to them.  The class as a whole was the quietest it has ever been.  The only time I did hear talking was generally about something that was just read.  “Dude, they threw acid on her,” “Man she looks old and she’s like Ms. D’s age,” and “The country is really small for all the fighting that is going on,” are just some of the conversation statements I heard echo around the room.

It’s a very positive start to the unit.  The positive response to the webquest thus far, combined with my students hearing positive things about the book from their peers in College Prep, has me very excited to begin the book.  And excited to find new was to maintain their engagement.

Today in CyberEnglish, we worked on ways to enhance blogs.  The students embedded ClustrMaps, Library Thing and Wordle images into widgets.  At the beginning of the hour, I presented my students with a challenge: do it on your own!

I told the students they were not to ask me any questions.  Instead they were to read the directions carefully, attempt new tasks without fear of failing and as a last resort ask a fellow student.  Of course many students still asked me questions.  Usually I responded by telling the student to consider the question they were asking me.  What exactly were they asking?  What information were they trying to find out?  Where do you think you could find that information?  When they did this, they usually solved the problem on their own.

Many of my students sought out the help of their peers but not nearly as much as they usually did with me.  Overall, I think my students made steps towards being more independent learners and developing problem solving skills.  I think forcing them to do so will also help them retain the information they found rather than having it go in one ear and out the other.  I don’t think this would work in every class but with a lesson as fun and light-hearted as this one, it definitely had some positive affect.

In the past, when studying To Kill a Mockingbird, I had my students partake in open discussions.  Among the reasons I did this was to make sure they: 1.) read the book and 2.) understood what they read.  Really, I was giving my students the short end of the stick.  I didn’t trust that they could understand the book without me.  I guess I wanted to be needed in some way.

During today’s class I decided to follow my mentor’s example and put my students into groups.  I assigned each group a chapter to discuss.  They were to summarize the chapter, tell the class what the most important parts of the chapter were and then read a passage to support their claims/opinions.  Although this went well in the majority of my classes, what really intrigued me were the private conversations I overheard in the ten minutes I gave the students to plan, in their groups, what they were going to say/talk about.

I figured that I would simply hear my students summarizing the events that happened in their given chapter.  I did hear this but I also heard students clarifying things.  Asking each other questions about things they didn’t understand.  I heard them arguing, respectfully, why they thought one thing was more important than other things (I think they assumed they could only pick one important part of each section).  I heard them discussing literature without my help. 

Ultimately what these classes showed me is that I don’t have to be the one to help the students realize the important aspects of any book.  They can be trusted to do it on their own.  When I pulled the class back together as a whole, they discussed the book on their own.  I was still needed to get them on track when conversations went a little astray or to settle an argument about the order of events.  But I wasn’t needed to depict the meaning of the book or a part of the book.

The start of each class period can be a very hectic time.  Students slowly trickle into the classroom and find their desks; students socialize as long as they possibly can; students find every excuse to not begin working.  How can this be avoided?  Routines.

In one classroom I observed, the students had a very set journal routine.  The students knew that at the start of every class period, they were to create an entry in their journal.  The type of entry, which was placed on the overhead projector, changed on a daily basis but the task itself didn’t.

In another classroom, the students had a blogging routine.  The students knew that when the bell rang they needed to open their teacher’s blog.  They were to read the day’s objectives and begin the assigned tasks.

In a third classroom, the students understood that each class was to begin with silent reading.  Immediately after the bell rang, the students stopped talking and pulled out their independent reading books.  Since the students were able to read books of their choosing, there wasn’t a fight to get them settled in.  They wanted to open their books and engage in the reading process.

Ultimately, I learned that there is a settling in process, a transition into learning mood that takes place at the beginning of every class period.  However, this transition can run more smoothly and take up less time if the students develop a specific routine, which dictates how the class is to start.

Once again I found myself observing a veteran teacher’s classroom.  I was inspired by the teacher’s ability to create a lesson that resulted in engaged students actively learning.  

On this particular day, the lesson goal was to help students construct the meaning of a poem.  Each student was assigned a line in the poem.  They were instructed to rewrite that specific line in their own words.  They then typed their new line into a word document along with the other students’ rewording.  

When everyone had finished their line, the teacher read the new version of the poem.  This ultimately helped the students develop an understanding of what the poem was about, what the author was saying and the meaning behind it.