So, this is a bit late, but here we go...I remember being really excited the day before Intersession began. As I mentioned in my blog from day one, I had a really hard time sleeping the night before. I was glad that the excitement finally set in because I was a bit "intersessioned-out" from all the work we had been doing to prepare our final lesson plans. Luckily, our final plans were really detailed and I knew things would go well.
One of my concerns was how to deal with the three boys in our class. They were clearly outnumbered and were enrolled in a class about fairy tales. I was sure to try and be aware of texts that might interest them--from adaptations with male characters to scary/dark versions of fairy tales I thought they might like.
I was also somewhat concerned about team-teaching. I had never been in a teaching atmosphere with either Brittany or Kim and I knew that they had some experience with kids through rec/YMCA activities. My only interaction had been with teaching some swim lessons and interacting with kids I babysat or that my mom taught (first graders). This led up to some concerns about discipline, but I knew I would find what worked best for me.
Showing posts with label Intersession Reflections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Intersession Reflections. Show all posts
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Intersession Reflection Day 5:
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?!
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?!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Intersession Reflection Day 4:
Day number 4, wow. This week has flown by! Today wasn't as energetic or exciting as yesterday, but the responses from the students in their reflection cards were really positive anyway. Today we talked about author's purpose, audience, and motifs.
For homeroom we had the students write "warm fuzzies" about the person sitting to their left on Burger King crowns. They wrote some very nice things and then got to wear the crowns for the rest of the class period.
We reviewed the ingredients of a fairy tale--to get their minds in the right place for writing their own fairy tales later in the class--and we talked about motifs. It was great to see how they were able to understand something new to them and identify common motifs in fairy tales. I was impressed at how detailed the discussion got. We used many of the items from our ingredients list to start us off with motifs and expanded upon them, for example: magic motifs include curses, spontaneous, karma related, animal/human magical helpers; characters include damsels, heroes, helpers, villains, magical creatures; setting is often medieval, in kingdom, far away, summer; and plot usually involves a journey, magical obstacles, traveling from home to dark place, etc. It was great!
It took a while for them to really get author's purpose and audience, but we thought about some stories we had already read together and brainstormed reasons for why the author might have written that particular version of LRRH. Then they broke up into small groups and read a fractured fairy tale, determining the audience and author's purpose. Mary really understood the idea, as well as a few other students, and I think they all have some idea of how they can think about author'sProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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0purpose. Again, they were completely absorbed in reading and on their reflection cards asked for more time to read! Yay!
Today we had a bit of a teacher, not power-struggle, but discrepancy in teaching strategies. I told kids that I was fine with them doodling during our discussion--I do it when I am in class and I know that it can help students focus. While another teacher, soon after told them to stop. I felt bad for letting them doodle and then having them get be reprimanded and told something different by another teacher.
The rest of the class was spent creating their fairy tales and that went really well. Many of them were really excited to take their work home tonight--completely based on their own prerogative. Another good day Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
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d the kids are SUPER excited to act out their skits and tell their sto
For homeroom we had the students write "warm fuzzies" about the person sitting to their left on Burger King crowns. They wrote some very nice things and then got to wear the crowns for the rest of the class period.
We reviewed the ingredients of a fairy tale--to get their minds in the right place for writing their own fairy tales later in the class--and we talked about motifs. It was great to see how they were able to understand something new to them and identify common motifs in fairy tales. I was impressed at how detailed the discussion got. We used many of the items from our ingredients list to start us off with motifs and expanded upon them, for example: magic motifs include curses, spontaneous, karma related, animal/human magical helpers; characters include damsels, heroes, helpers, villains, magical creatures; setting is often medieval, in kingdom, far away, summer; and plot usually involves a journey, magical obstacles, traveling from home to dark place, etc. It was great!
It took a while for them to really get author's purpose and audience, but we thought about some stories we had already read together and brainstormed reasons for why the author might have written that particular version of LRRH. Then they broke up into small groups and read a fractured fairy tale, determining the audience and author's purpose. Mary really understood the idea, as well as a few other students, and I think they all have some idea of how they can think about author'sProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0
0purpose. Again, they were completely absorbed in reading and on their reflection cards asked for more time to read! Yay!
Today we had a bit of a teacher, not power-struggle, but discrepancy in teaching strategies. I told kids that I was fine with them doodling during our discussion--I do it when I am in class and I know that it can help students focus. While another teacher, soon after told them to stop. I felt bad for letting them doodle and then having them get be reprimanded and told something different by another teacher.
The rest of the class was spent creating their fairy tales and that went really well. Many of them were really excited to take their work home tonight--completely based on their own prerogative. Another good day Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
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d the kids are SUPER excited to act out their skits and tell their sto
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Intersession Reflection Day 3:
Today was another great day for Intersession! We had the students read during homeroom and then share a bit about the books they read--which they all easily participated in. Then we did our bell-ringer and it was great to see so much creativity and detail. Tom even had the number of turrets on his castle mentioned in his setting. I got to work more with Jamie in coming up with a setting and I really enjoy talking to her and helping her brainstorm different ideas. She is so bright and delightful; I think she benefits from extra scaffolding and one-on-one instruction/aid. It seems to help her focus and continue working on her own once she has confirmation that she is on the right track.
I was nervous because Nikki's reflection note card was misplaced and so we didn't have one to return to her, especially since she seemed to have been going through something yesterday. Luckily though, she was really involved in today's class. She raised her hand a lot and even went up to the board to draw a plot diagram for the rest of the class.
We talked about plot and the different pieces of it, which went well, and then we dove into Little Red Riding Hood. We read one version and then several alternate endings together. The students LOVED the one in which Red calls out the huntsman for trying to "help" her and to kill the wolf, killing the huntsman in the end and befriending the wolf. After this we mapped out the plot of one story together and then they paired up to work on mapping the plot for a different version. They all were engaged with this activity and worked well together.
Then we had them reenact their own version of LRRH and it was AMAZING! They all got so involved and engaged in this activity. Even the students who are more introverted--and our classroom addition, Jacey--were so excited in planning it out. They performed their skits to the opposite group and they were great! Jamie and Nikki were a bit lackluster in the actually acting of the play, obviously shy--but they were smiling and laughing and having a good time along with everyone else. It was great to see even Edward, a quiet but clever boy, getting caught up in the plays; he was literally leaping through the air! We had them talk about the key plot points and map them out, as well, and they did a great job with this.
Next we went back to character analysis. They did the "What's in your wallet?" activity and were really creative. Bella had a folded wanted poster of the Wolf in his wallet, "Because he doesn't want anyone to see it. He tore it down and put it where no one could see it at all!" At the end of the class they did their reflection cards and it was unanimous--today's class was really fun! They also asked if they could create another play, which is great because that is one of the options they can use for their final project. We are thinking of letting them pair up into groups of 3 to create a play for their project.
Some things to work on...I think we need to find a better way to refocus the students when they get a bit carried away during discussions. They tend to become louder and talk over one another which makes it hard to hear everyone in the class. Sometimes, in trying to get them to be respectful of their fellow students and to quiet them down, we end up adding to the noise with comments or "shhhh!" I think this is something we need to work on, and yet, since we only have a week with these kids it is hard to establish consistent classroom expectations. In reality, I am mostly glad that they are so into the lessons that they are talking so much, but I know that there need to be guidelines and more structure in the discussions to make sure that everyone is heard.
On the plus side, the kids always apologize when they get too loud and they are quiet when they hear us tell them to be respectful to their peers.
One thing I still need to work on is regaining student focus and figuring out my own, successful way of dealing with loud talkers and discussions that get a bit loud and unrestrained. I won't always have two other people there to help with this and I need to find what works for me that I am comfortable with doing.
Tomorrow we write!
I was nervous because Nikki's reflection note card was misplaced and so we didn't have one to return to her, especially since she seemed to have been going through something yesterday. Luckily though, she was really involved in today's class. She raised her hand a lot and even went up to the board to draw a plot diagram for the rest of the class.
We talked about plot and the different pieces of it, which went well, and then we dove into Little Red Riding Hood. We read one version and then several alternate endings together. The students LOVED the one in which Red calls out the huntsman for trying to "help" her and to kill the wolf, killing the huntsman in the end and befriending the wolf. After this we mapped out the plot of one story together and then they paired up to work on mapping the plot for a different version. They all were engaged with this activity and worked well together.
Then we had them reenact their own version of LRRH and it was AMAZING! They all got so involved and engaged in this activity. Even the students who are more introverted--and our classroom addition, Jacey--were so excited in planning it out. They performed their skits to the opposite group and they were great! Jamie and Nikki were a bit lackluster in the actually acting of the play, obviously shy--but they were smiling and laughing and having a good time along with everyone else. It was great to see even Edward, a quiet but clever boy, getting caught up in the plays; he was literally leaping through the air! We had them talk about the key plot points and map them out, as well, and they did a great job with this.
Next we went back to character analysis. They did the "What's in your wallet?" activity and were really creative. Bella had a folded wanted poster of the Wolf in his wallet, "Because he doesn't want anyone to see it. He tore it down and put it where no one could see it at all!" At the end of the class they did their reflection cards and it was unanimous--today's class was really fun! They also asked if they could create another play, which is great because that is one of the options they can use for their final project. We are thinking of letting them pair up into groups of 3 to create a play for their project.
Some things to work on...I think we need to find a better way to refocus the students when they get a bit carried away during discussions. They tend to become louder and talk over one another which makes it hard to hear everyone in the class. Sometimes, in trying to get them to be respectful of their fellow students and to quiet them down, we end up adding to the noise with comments or "shhhh!" I think this is something we need to work on, and yet, since we only have a week with these kids it is hard to establish consistent classroom expectations. In reality, I am mostly glad that they are so into the lessons that they are talking so much, but I know that there need to be guidelines and more structure in the discussions to make sure that everyone is heard.
On the plus side, the kids always apologize when they get too loud and they are quiet when they hear us tell them to be respectful to their peers.
One thing I still need to work on is regaining student focus and figuring out my own, successful way of dealing with loud talkers and discussions that get a bit loud and unrestrained. I won't always have two other people there to help with this and I need to find what works for me that I am comfortable with doing.
Tomorrow we write!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Intersession Reflection Day 2:
Day 2! So, I thought that today went pretty well. It was my day to be the lead teacher for our big activity which was using sticky notes to help us identify characters within different versions of Cinderella--focusing on indirect and direct characteristics for the characters within the story. For homeroom we had each student say hello in another language--this was a great opportunity for some of our more culturally diverse students to shine. One girl, we'll call her Jamie, is Hmong and she is very quiet in class. She shot her hand up to give us an example of a different way to say "Hello!" It was great to see her so engaged. Everyone had fun. Then we played "What's my name again?" and all the students seemed to like this as well--they wanted to go another round but we decided to get to work.
The bellringer was GREAT! Everyone shared their newly made characters by taking on that persona--even the three teachers had to do some improve acting. We were laughing and having a good time, the kids are excited to put it together later in the week.
Next we talked about Cinderella--what does she look like. Because we had a lot of Cinderella books out in the back of the class, I think some of them drew images from there. They also had theri newly created characters in their minds, so, I think they felt like they had more choice in their creations. Despite this, we still had a nice discussion on why our Disney Cinderella looks a certain way and what that says about American values. We went over the definition of culture and value--which went very well--and then we introduced sticky noting by doing a "story time."
The kids sat around me, with their sticky notes ready, and as I read a page we would stop and see what characters and characteristics we found. The kids really got into it and were making a lot of great suggestions. It was nice to have Kim and Brittany in the audience adding their comments too--this gave the kids more scaffolding and modeling by being able to observe their teachers participating and adding to the reading. We cut the group story short and let the kids pair up and chose their own book to sticky note and gave them the worksheet we modeled together. This was the best part of the day!
All the kids were so engrossed in their books! Even Nikki (we will call her), who was having trouble focusing today--Brittany talked to her to make sure she was okay, but we think there is something going on outside of class--was reading her story outloud with her partner and talking about their sticky notes together. Jamie grabbed the Hmong Cinderella book and she worked with her partner--an older and more confident English reader--spent the rest of the class reading their book and filling in their worksheet. Those who finished their books went back and grabbed more. Even Tom, who said he hated fairy tales, was reading another book as soon as he got the chance. Tom and Liza were being a bit chatty, again today, and we did have to separate them, but they worked on the sticky note project together and did well. I think they just get really excited and loud about things which can distract the rest of the class.
It was great to see them so engaged in fairy tales! Kate was checking out the YA adaptations we had on hand--there is a Chinese YA Cinderella book that she was really interested in, she is Asian herself and knew the child version of the Chinese Cinderella already, so this book really appealed to her. It is so important for kids to see themselves represented in books and I saw the power of that today. Anther girl wanted a copy of the Grimm's story to take home and read--spurring similar reactions in Tom and some other students. Based on the enthusiasm that these books were met with and the desire of the students to read more of them, I think we are going to have silent reading tomorrow morning during homeroom so they can check out more of the books!
Overall, I thought today was great. We had to cut out the PSA because we ran out of time, but it is better to have too much planned than not enough. I think we need to besure to give the students the time they need whcih cuts into other activities; as long as reading and writing are getting done, and the kids are having a good time, I don't think we need to worry about the other fun activities that get cut out.
For tomorrow, we have our reflection note cards to hand back--with more messages from the three of us. I hope we can get Nikki's attention and keep it for the whole class while making sure that Tom and Liza don't talk too much or too loudly. We also dive into Little Red Riding Hood tomorrow! Wahoo! Day 3 here we come!
The bellringer was GREAT! Everyone shared their newly made characters by taking on that persona--even the three teachers had to do some improve acting. We were laughing and having a good time, the kids are excited to put it together later in the week.
Next we talked about Cinderella--what does she look like. Because we had a lot of Cinderella books out in the back of the class, I think some of them drew images from there. They also had theri newly created characters in their minds, so, I think they felt like they had more choice in their creations. Despite this, we still had a nice discussion on why our Disney Cinderella looks a certain way and what that says about American values. We went over the definition of culture and value--which went very well--and then we introduced sticky noting by doing a "story time."
The kids sat around me, with their sticky notes ready, and as I read a page we would stop and see what characters and characteristics we found. The kids really got into it and were making a lot of great suggestions. It was nice to have Kim and Brittany in the audience adding their comments too--this gave the kids more scaffolding and modeling by being able to observe their teachers participating and adding to the reading. We cut the group story short and let the kids pair up and chose their own book to sticky note and gave them the worksheet we modeled together. This was the best part of the day!
All the kids were so engrossed in their books! Even Nikki (we will call her), who was having trouble focusing today--Brittany talked to her to make sure she was okay, but we think there is something going on outside of class--was reading her story outloud with her partner and talking about their sticky notes together. Jamie grabbed the Hmong Cinderella book and she worked with her partner--an older and more confident English reader--spent the rest of the class reading their book and filling in their worksheet. Those who finished their books went back and grabbed more. Even Tom, who said he hated fairy tales, was reading another book as soon as he got the chance. Tom and Liza were being a bit chatty, again today, and we did have to separate them, but they worked on the sticky note project together and did well. I think they just get really excited and loud about things which can distract the rest of the class.
It was great to see them so engaged in fairy tales! Kate was checking out the YA adaptations we had on hand--there is a Chinese YA Cinderella book that she was really interested in, she is Asian herself and knew the child version of the Chinese Cinderella already, so this book really appealed to her. It is so important for kids to see themselves represented in books and I saw the power of that today. Anther girl wanted a copy of the Grimm's story to take home and read--spurring similar reactions in Tom and some other students. Based on the enthusiasm that these books were met with and the desire of the students to read more of them, I think we are going to have silent reading tomorrow morning during homeroom so they can check out more of the books!
Overall, I thought today was great. We had to cut out the PSA because we ran out of time, but it is better to have too much planned than not enough. I think we need to besure to give the students the time they need whcih cuts into other activities; as long as reading and writing are getting done, and the kids are having a good time, I don't think we need to worry about the other fun activities that get cut out.
For tomorrow, we have our reflection note cards to hand back--with more messages from the three of us. I hope we can get Nikki's attention and keep it for the whole class while making sure that Tom and Liza don't talk too much or too loudly. We also dive into Little Red Riding Hood tomorrow! Wahoo! Day 3 here we come!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Intersession Reflection Day 1:
Alright, today was our first day of intersession and my first day of teaching--what a rush! It was so exciting to be actually setting up the classroom and prepping for our students to come in. I had been nervous this past week that I would be so tired of looking at my lesson plan, but last night I couldn't sleep from excitement! During the course of the morning, I was so glad to have added more detail and descriptions to our lesson plan this past week. It comforted me to have a plan as to what the day would entail--even though it didn't go quite as we imagined it would. There were certain activities within the lesson plan that took longer than we had expected. Creating our coat of arms for the realms took quite a long time and the students didn't finish them. I think a bit more structure in the creation would have made it easier for them--they could have benefited from a set outline from which they created their crests. This illustrated to me the need to provide choice and a sense of agency but also the need to provide some scaffold in order to move the process along more smoothly. Because this took so long, we had to cut down on our reading time, but, the reading went really well!
After looking at our Intro to Fairy Tales powerpoint (which they all loved) we generated a really great list of ingredients on the wall. With this list we created symbols for each ingredient as a class. Next I read "Rumpelstiltskin" out loud and the students followed along on their own copy. After each paragraph we would stop and I would ask them what happened in the paragraph--or, what could we mark. Everyone was following along and participating. I only saw a couple of students who weren't keeping up as well, but even one of them really stepped up when we talked about the morals of the story. I was surprised at how well they were able to pick up on the morals both on their own and with some prompts from us.
The word castle was another hit within the class and the kids enjoyed a little game at the end. It was during the game that two of the most distant students opened up. One boy who tried to get out of the game on purpose through lack of any kind of effort, ended up winning the game and celebrating his victory (after we called him out on trying on purpose to get out). It seemed like he needed a little push and to feel more confidence in his abilities--where have I heard this before.
For tomorrow, I think that we can work on scaffolding even more, making sure that students aren't talking out of place, and being careful not to try ant talk over or interrupt each other. These were things that I noticed as well as things that were mentioned by the students in their reflection note cards. We asked them what worked about the class, what they could do better, and what we could do better. All around the kids said they had fun and that they could listen and focus more while we could give them more time, repeat directions, and not talk over/interrupt each other. I think after today we have a better division of labor and the experience from today will really help with this as well. It is great to get feedback from the students and to be able to discuss the day with each other!
I hope tomorrow goes just as well! :)
After looking at our Intro to Fairy Tales powerpoint (which they all loved) we generated a really great list of ingredients on the wall. With this list we created symbols for each ingredient as a class. Next I read "Rumpelstiltskin" out loud and the students followed along on their own copy. After each paragraph we would stop and I would ask them what happened in the paragraph--or, what could we mark. Everyone was following along and participating. I only saw a couple of students who weren't keeping up as well, but even one of them really stepped up when we talked about the morals of the story. I was surprised at how well they were able to pick up on the morals both on their own and with some prompts from us.
The word castle was another hit within the class and the kids enjoyed a little game at the end. It was during the game that two of the most distant students opened up. One boy who tried to get out of the game on purpose through lack of any kind of effort, ended up winning the game and celebrating his victory (after we called him out on trying on purpose to get out). It seemed like he needed a little push and to feel more confidence in his abilities--where have I heard this before.
For tomorrow, I think that we can work on scaffolding even more, making sure that students aren't talking out of place, and being careful not to try ant talk over or interrupt each other. These were things that I noticed as well as things that were mentioned by the students in their reflection note cards. We asked them what worked about the class, what they could do better, and what we could do better. All around the kids said they had fun and that they could listen and focus more while we could give them more time, repeat directions, and not talk over/interrupt each other. I think after today we have a better division of labor and the experience from today will really help with this as well. It is great to get feedback from the students and to be able to discuss the day with each other!
I hope tomorrow goes just as well! :)
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