About My Teaching...

Today's blog will be about a few things that relate to my teaching. First, a lesson and story I did today and yesterday. Then I'll share about another activity I had the kids do.

YESTERDAY...
I tried a literature circle activity that upthedownstaircase had shared with me a while back. As a new teacher there are SO MANY things out there to try. And this was one of those that I later said to myself, "Why didn't I think of this sooner?". Being that next Friday is the very last day of the semester, and Thursday and Friday are short days, I have to have shorter lessons to work with.

This quarter has been hectic. My students have done pretty much nothing else but write a 4 page essay. Followed by a 5 page research paper using six sources. They did these while reading a novel of their choice and doing a project with that too. So, FINALLY I get to get back to what I love about teaching English...literature. I decided to go with a story that I taught when I student taught 12th grade World Literature. We read "Amnesty" by Nobel Prize winning and South African author, Nadine Gordimer. This is a short story about Apartheid and a man who goes away to prison and comes home "changed".

First I put two questions on the board for the students to respond to. This warm up asked them how they would feel if a loved one went away for a long period of time, how they would feel and what they would miss most. The second question asked them if they think their relationship with that person will have changed when the person returns home. As an anticipatory activity I picked one passage from the story, enlarged it and copied it for each student. First I read the passage to them. I asked them to underline a word or passage that they either liked or didn't understand. Next they had to write in the margins a question or comment about the underlined portion they chose. After this I put them in groups of 5 and had them rotate papers around and reply to each person in their group's question or comment. I discovered having them number the comments helped me figure which went first, second, etc. Afterwards I had someone from each group share out one of the questions and the comments. I was so suprised at how much they got from the passage I selected. In the passage the man is in court, he is seeing his wife and daughter in court for the first time in two years. The man's comrades are their with him. They asked such great questions, had opinions, it was wonderful.

Today...
We read "Amnesty" while stopping along the way to explain things, analyze, and discuss certain aspects and details. I shared with the students why the topic of Apartheid was so important to me and why it is so important for them to know about it. I was shocked each period when I asked "Who knows this word?" (I wrote it on the board in red at that time). In each class I was lucky to get 2 or 3 hands. How can they not be learning about Apartheid in school? I loved that at the end I was able to share with them how I was involved in the anti-apartheid movement when I was their age. How I knew political exiles and people who had been imprisoned because they spoke out against an opressive government. We talked about the importance of aknowledging the freedoms we have. Overall, it went great! There are always some who zone out or are bored, but it went well. So much better than the last month has been.

Letter to the Teacher...
Two days ago I assigned my students a formal business letter. Their task was to type me a letter telling me what they learned, discovered, liked, disliked, or advice they would like to give me for the future. I have to say that I learned A LOT in this activity. First, I learned that this assignment had almost 100% turn in rate. Next I discovered what I knew, my weaknesses :) The kids told me they thought I was a cool teacher. They liked my personal stories and connections to the real world. What suprised me most though was that MANY students said I should have given much more homework to keep them on their toes and that I should not be lenient with due dates. They shared how they know I did that because I care so much but that just enabled them to be lazy. I was pleased to see that each student focused on both positives and negatives and thanked all of them when I read the letters, letting them know that because of them, I will be a better teacher next year. :)

WOW!! Ask 15 and 16 year olds their opinions and they come through for you! I have to say that I am proud of myself for putting myself out there and taking this risk. I suggest it for all teachers. It's amazing feedback; and if you give 50 points, you will get great turn in rates :)