Posts

Observation #4: Peer-Review

-
Image
Peer-Review- The Ups and Downs of Letting Students Critique Each Other My fourth and final observation occurred during my Narrative Unit. In this unit I was guiding students through writing one of three narrative options; Personal, Illness, or Fiction. I let the students have this choice in an effort to differentiate, and to alleviate any anxieties about being required to write about an actual experience they had lived through, or of having to be vulnerable in front of their peers/me. It worked wonderfully and I've read equal amounts of stories from each genre, and some which overlap in exciting ways! As part of this unit, I assigned a Peer Review to help students understand this unit was part of viewing writing as a process, and so they could compare their writing level to that of their peers. Shannon observed me on the peer review day. This observation went very well for me, despite my nerves attempting to fool me into believing otherwise. Everything went according to plan, I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Observation #3: Classroom Management

-
Image
Classroom Management - The Hardest Challenge for New Teachers I'm not a very authoritative person. I consider myself to be approachable, relatively easy-going, and willing to joke around with my students. I strive to make my classroom an open place, where students can have fun and learn English at the same time. I think, in this instance, that I may have given my students too much freedom for their own good. My vision of their expectations and behaviors is colored by own experiences as a thirteen-year-old and I'm beginning to remember that I wasn't what one would call a typical teenager. Oh sure, I was similar enough, and I'm sure that there are children in my classroom who are mini-versions of the kind of student I was back then. But I also have failed to remember that I was a fringe kid in those days. I existed on the outside of the student community back then, and I was something of an outlier when it came to my behavior in English class specifically. So while I pa...
2 comments
Read more

Observation #2

-
Anne Frank has been a challenge and a half to teach. I hadn't anticipated how mentally draining it would be to attempt to teach thirteen year olds the emotional scope of the Holocaust. They kept wanting to giggle during the lessons, which I suppose can be forgiven as emotional discomfort manifesting itself in 13 year old minds, but it was still something I had to contend with. Shannon observed on a reading day, which was a simple bread and butter type of lesson. I let the kids pick their reading parts and stopped them periodically to foster discussion on topics I wanted to highlight about he characters relationships and the history of the Holocaust. It was simple, and it was a little boring to me. But then I suppose not all lessons can be fun and invigorating. Despite the boredom for me personally, the students were engaged, and it went over well. Overall another successful lesson.
Post a Comment
Read more

Observation #1

-
Image
Post a Comment
Read more