Practicum - Sharing a Lesson

Admittedly, my area of experience is not in teaching. I have often trained employees at the various restaurants where I have been employed. Lesson objectives? Learn how to use the computer and learn to multi-task. Certainly, it is easy to wait tables once you get the hang of it, but it is mostly just overwhelming out first. We once had “tip a cop” night at one of my restaurants….at the end of the night, the officer who had “worked” with me said to his friends, “she ran my a--- off! I had no idea you guys did so much work.” Strategy of implementation? I typically just throw them in and tell them to do it (no following me around for three days “watching”—I consider that to be a waste of time). Checks for understanding? Well, I simply watched over their shoulders to make sure they weren’t ringing in the orders incorrectly and I would sometimes say, “what do you need to do now?” What might I change? I really am not sure….most people either catch on right away or they don’t.

I did, however, begin teaching my unit at the middle school last week. For the first day, there were only two goals: take a pre-assessment (I think the kids were thrilled by how short it was) and create a booklet for using over the next two weeks. My mentor teacher had suggested that the booklet creating might take most of the hour, so I had not planned for anything else beyond that, which turned out to be a mistake on my part. Next time I will make sure to bring a book to read aloud while they are working on their booklets, because although I think it is nice to let students talk while they are working (they were decorating the covers of their booklets and coming up with pseudonyms), it would have been a better use of time for me to start getting them interested in reading (also, reading aloud is beneficial at every grade level, and it usually catches student’s attention). I walked them through the activity one step at a time, walking from one table to the next holding my model and watching to make sure that at least one person at each table started in the correct direction before walking to the next table. Incidentally, only three people made theirs “incorrectly” and it was because they jumped ahead. I had no problem with that, given that what they ended up with will work just as well as what I was aiming for. Parts to change? Again, always have something else planned. Other changes? 1) making a more clear explanation of “nom de plume” so that students understand that the reason to have one is to make sure that they aren’t uncomfortable sharing their poetry (most of them started shouting out their fake names immediately, which told me that I had not made it clear that I was letting them create a fake name for the purpose of the poetry evaluation at the end, where they would have to share what they wrote—I know that people often feel very uncomfortable about writing poems); 2) I would consider using a longer pre-assessment. The reason I did not use a longer pre-assessment in this case is that the students have already taken 7 days of tests since the start of the semester. I think that the consistent failure (taking tests for things you have not yet learned) creates a negative attitude and causes students to not try as hard (some do not even bother reading the questions—they simply write “IDK”—which is a waste of everyone’s time, in my opinion). Also, I think I was just as tired of the tests as they were since I’d been sitting through every class period of tests.

But I digress.

The pre-assessment showed me, however, that my initial goals needed to change. I had originally been simply planning to concentrate on teaching the students figurative devices, symbolism, and tone, but it turns out that the students are perfectly competent in these areas, having had these things drilled down their throats since 5th or 6th grade. What they are unable to do, however, is make explicit references to the text to show how they know what they know. They were also unable to read beyond the literal meaning of the metaphor in the poem that I used for the assessment. I attempted to change my lessons that night, staying up quite late, but the results of my next day activity revealed that the students had not completely understood what I was trying to teach (I was attempting a modified “close reading” exercise, which I can’t really explain without drawing it by hand). Thusly, what I would change in the future is: 1) I would make sure to not go over my 10-12 minute limit for the mini lesson at the beginning of class and 2) I would break the activity into 2 parts so that it would not be so difficult to understand. I did try guiding the students through one poem as an example, but I believe half of the students were not listening.

Therefore, the final thing I am going to try my hand at changing is “how” I teach the lesson. First, I have decreased the difficulty of the activity so that it should fit more easily into a 45 minute time frame (I only have 10 lessons in all, can’t go about wasting time). This will not only mean that the assignment is more likely to be completed but also means that it shouldn’t take me 25 minutes to explain it. Second, I will not be using technology with which I am still unfamiliar—this should help decrease my personal stress and help create a more calm atmosphere (students can really sense nervousness, I discovered). Moreover, currently, the students desks are grouped, and I find myself talking to their backs for half of the lesson—or constantly asking them to turn around. It is not my classroom, or I would shift those desks around to ALWAYS be facing the front. Instead, I have purchased a white-board and I will bring the students to the back area of the classroom to sit around me on the floor. Admittedly, there is not very much room in the back (there are just as many students as desks), but this method should guarantee that I can see every students face and will not be shouting across the room to people who are in the back. I believe that my stress level will decrease (students not having their backs to me, me not feeling like I am shouting) will result in an increase in my ability to pay attention to the students faces to make sure they are listening and comprehending. Lastly, I am going to try out a “quiet” prompt to see if it helps me quiet down the students in a more timely fashion. The code word is “high five” and my sister (who is also a teacher) advises me to say it in a normal tone of voice and assures me that students will catch on quickly and will quiet down without you having to shout over them. I believe her, of course, because I happen to have the most intelligent and wise sisters in the entire universe.

I will be trying this tomorrow, and will determine whether the strategy is successful or not. I am sure you (the only person reading this Blog other than myself) are greatly eager to hear an update. (hah!)
;)