Day 7 - 9 Hours
I TAUGHT!!!
I have spent quite some time talking to my brother about what lesson to do while I'm there and if I can actually run the class. They are at the end of their poetry unit so I came up with the idea of doing found poetry with the class. My brother had never heard of it so i explained it and he was all for trying something new. Between our brainstorming (since he has about 6-8 yrs of teaching experience) we decided to show the class an example of found poetry and then have them do it on their own. He wanted to use parts of the texts from The Crucible, so he pulled out a page from each act (one page per group) because I am not familiar with that play.
That's the prep... on to the more exciting stuff, namely, teaching!!
First off, I have a cold and I was a little worried about how I would come across, sneezing, sniffling, nose running... Also, I was worried I would blank, lose my train of thougt, or freeze. I told my brother to save me if I do so. All this not to mention that all these classes are back to back, 4 classes in a row.
So I start. I explain found poetry, my brother is my helper and hands out the photocopies of the example and later the exerpt they are working with. We go over the piece (thanks to the graduate students from adolescent lit last semester who did found poetry in relation to Rules of the Road), then the poem that was created from it. I lay out guidelines and rules involved in found poetry, explain what they'll be doing, ask if they have questions, and then they are off!!!
They made their own groups, working individually all the way up to groups of 5, (this was at my brother's discretion), but the large groups tended to fix themselves when they realized that they hda different ideas and that they would rather work with just one or two people to concoct their own poem.
As they worked (we gave them about 15 minutes, five to read through the section, and a good chuck of time to work) mybrother and I walked around the room being available for students, keeping an eye on progress and talking with students who were having a hard time but weren't the type of raise their hands to ask for further clarification or help.
As students finished my brother and I read the finished poems. This was the exciting part. The poems were all really impressive, and (now for the really exciting part) the students all felt such ownership for their work. They were eager for me andmy brother to read their pieces. They joked about how great their pieces were (ours is better than yours, or this should be published), but the joking had truth in it because they were genuinely proud of themselves. Even the students who tend not to do their work and are less than motivated in class completed the task.
At the end of class I reminded the students to hang on to the finished poems because they will be sharing them tomorrow and to also bring in their research papers (finished or not) because (andthis is my brother's idea that I liked) the students will be writing found poetry from their own research papers. They have been working on these (less than exciting) research papers for several weeks, so now we give them the opportunity to do something creative with them. From their response today (which my brother was really impressed about) I think tomorrow should go well (given that they actually bring in their papers).
Overall, I'm so happy! I was worried about how I would do in front of a classroom for the first time, but (not to gloat) my brother said I looked natural. I walked around the class when I wass explaining, I didn't um and ah (too much) and I was able to get the class' attention and get them to follow my directions and complete an assignment.
YAY!!!!! (can't wait until tomorrow!)
(can't wait until student teaching!!!)
I have spent quite some time talking to my brother about what lesson to do while I'm there and if I can actually run the class. They are at the end of their poetry unit so I came up with the idea of doing found poetry with the class. My brother had never heard of it so i explained it and he was all for trying something new. Between our brainstorming (since he has about 6-8 yrs of teaching experience) we decided to show the class an example of found poetry and then have them do it on their own. He wanted to use parts of the texts from The Crucible, so he pulled out a page from each act (one page per group) because I am not familiar with that play.
That's the prep... on to the more exciting stuff, namely, teaching!!
First off, I have a cold and I was a little worried about how I would come across, sneezing, sniffling, nose running... Also, I was worried I would blank, lose my train of thougt, or freeze. I told my brother to save me if I do so. All this not to mention that all these classes are back to back, 4 classes in a row.
So I start. I explain found poetry, my brother is my helper and hands out the photocopies of the example and later the exerpt they are working with. We go over the piece (thanks to the graduate students from adolescent lit last semester who did found poetry in relation to Rules of the Road), then the poem that was created from it. I lay out guidelines and rules involved in found poetry, explain what they'll be doing, ask if they have questions, and then they are off!!!
They made their own groups, working individually all the way up to groups of 5, (this was at my brother's discretion), but the large groups tended to fix themselves when they realized that they hda different ideas and that they would rather work with just one or two people to concoct their own poem.
As they worked (we gave them about 15 minutes, five to read through the section, and a good chuck of time to work) mybrother and I walked around the room being available for students, keeping an eye on progress and talking with students who were having a hard time but weren't the type of raise their hands to ask for further clarification or help.
As students finished my brother and I read the finished poems. This was the exciting part. The poems were all really impressive, and (now for the really exciting part) the students all felt such ownership for their work. They were eager for me andmy brother to read their pieces. They joked about how great their pieces were (ours is better than yours, or this should be published), but the joking had truth in it because they were genuinely proud of themselves. Even the students who tend not to do their work and are less than motivated in class completed the task.
At the end of class I reminded the students to hang on to the finished poems because they will be sharing them tomorrow and to also bring in their research papers (finished or not) because (andthis is my brother's idea that I liked) the students will be writing found poetry from their own research papers. They have been working on these (less than exciting) research papers for several weeks, so now we give them the opportunity to do something creative with them. From their response today (which my brother was really impressed about) I think tomorrow should go well (given that they actually bring in their papers).
Overall, I'm so happy! I was worried about how I would do in front of a classroom for the first time, but (not to gloat) my brother said I looked natural. I walked around the class when I wass explaining, I didn't um and ah (too much) and I was able to get the class' attention and get them to follow my directions and complete an assignment.
YAY!!!!! (can't wait until tomorrow!)
(can't wait until student teaching!!!)
posted by Sara Winterling | 2:25 PM
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