We're done! I can't believe the week is already over! I thought today's class went really well and the kids were great. I hadn't realized how many of them took their assignments home to work on, or that they would complete them at home and so I felt bad that some students were ready to go before others. Nevertheless, the students were excellent today.
For homeroom we discussed plans for next week and the rest of their break and it was great to hear everyone share something with ease. We didn't have to ask people to share, they were raising their hands or offering up their plans right away. That made me feel great because it suggested that we were able to create an environment that they all felt comfortable in.
Next, I read to the "The Robber Bridegroom" which is a more obscure Grimm's fairy tale and asked them to think about our fairy tale ingredients as I read. It is pretty dark--with cannibalism and kidnapping--but in the end the bad guys are executed. The students absolutely loved it. After the story, which had a lot of gasps and "ewwwws," I asked them to identify some fairy tale ingredients. Students talked about the characters and settings and with a little prompting they used some of our word castle words--motif, foreshadow, and author's purpose. It is great to see them catch on, and I think by referring to the word castle words and our ingredients list at least a couple of times every day (in different contexts and stories) helped to drive the points home.
After homeroom, students did their bell ringer (with a few groans) and then we let them work on their stories. Some worked on finishing their stories and others practiced their skits. The skit group who was already done were given the chance to read or look at some of the YA fairy tale adaptations that we had on display. They were very engaged in reading these and it was nice to see them so focused.
When we went to the stage for the performances, I really didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by the plays and presentations. They were awesome! I loved that the first group to go used one of the motifs we talked about in class--the dangerous dark woods--within their story. They even mentioned that they had learned about it in the "Happily Never After Class" they took! Too funny!
Maggie's picture book presentation blew me away! She did all of that at home and finished the last page in class today. I loved her story and it was clear both how she adapted the story and what her moral was. I was proud of her for presenting so strongly--her voice was loud and clear and she read with confidence. She had participated a lot in class but was much more hesitant and quiet.
The next play, with King Duncan, was much more elaborate than I had thought. I also was expecting a bad ending, but they pulled out a "Happily Ever After" kind of ending in the end. I loved how into the play they all were and it was AWESOME to see Jamie have such a big role in the play! In the LRRH skits they put on the other day she was very reserved and quiet, but today she was reading her lines and acting very confidently with her peers!
Mary's story was also fantastic and I loved how into her own world she became. In her reflection she notes how much she loved writing and creating her own story. This is followed by a few lines mentioning how she now wants to write even more--either a longer fairy tale or a fantasy piece of work.
We had our feast, they did their reflections, and with the last fifteen minutes of class we watched a bit of Shrek, calling out the different characters we saw in the movie and how their stories are being twisted or "fractured."
As they were leaving, we handed out their bound and published copies of everyone's fairy tale! They loved this SO much and it was amazing to see how much they enjoyed having their final project and those of their classmates in such a packaged product.
REFLECTION:
I thought the class went really well. I think that everyone learned something in the class and they worked well with us, with each other, and on their own. They loved the creative aspects of the class and did an excellent job with the two reading strategies we presented them with.
If I were to teach this unit again, I would try to implement more challenging activities into the lessons. This could be done by utilizing ideas from critical theory into the unit and identifying some of the different ways one can read a fairy tale, and what this suggests about the stories, authors, and cultures. We did this to a small degree in our class, but it would be great to kick it up a notch with more in depth reading of both well-known and obscure fairy tales from around the world. It would also be neat to examine fairy tales from around the world with more depth.
I think that for Intersession this class was the right mixture of learning and fun, but in a traditional classroom with a traditional curriculum, it would need more (maybe with my suggestions from the paragraph above). The students did meet our goals and standards for the class and learned some new things about fairy tales.
Some things I need to work on are explicit and clear directions, the ability to rethink and regroup myself in order to make something clear, repeating my directions (especially with ELL students in the classroom), and discipline. Some things I thought I did well were connecting with the students and forming some relationship with them, being patient, helping students and checking in with them, keeping students on task during work times, and adjusting the lessons/unit as I went along.
Overall, I thought this was a nice way to baby-step my way into teaching. It was both helpful and stressful to have two other cooperating teachers with me in the classroom, but I think we handled ourselves well and collaborated easily together. We had no problems transitioning from one person to the other and we were all involved in each part of the lesson--whether it was through helping with the discussion, working with students, using our proximity to help keep the class in order, or providing support to both the students and each other.
I learned a lot about middle-schoolers and myself during this experience and I know I will be able to draw on this past week in the weeks and months to come. Intersession was, in general, a great way to help me start to develop myself as a teacher. I would say all our hard work on this unit payed off and the students both learned somethings and had fun; what more can we ask than that?!
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