Everyman and Teachers

Today marked my last day of my practicum placement at BHS and I could not be sadder to be leaving. My TP and I were able to teach at least one class every day this week, and this was my first time teaching for a week straight! As I approached this week I was nervous and unbelievably anxious. The only thing that calmed my nerves was that my TP and I had interacted with our students and had the opportunity to teach them numerous times prior to this week. These were students that we made connections with and looked forward to observing and teaching. We taught a senior EEP class and we got to teach them the morality play Everyman. Our CT advised us to do some outside research about the play because these students were extremely intelligent and she wanted us to be as prepared as we could be. Thank goodness that we did our background research, because the questions these students asked were on such a high level of Bloom's Taxonomy.
For our first lesson, we had the students do a tea party to introduce them to the play. At first the students were hesitant because despite our assurances that they did not have to have read the play or be familiar with the characters to successfully engage in a tea party, they did not grasp this at first. This reluctance prompted my TP and I to further clarify how Everyman is an allegorical play and that the characters in the play embody their names (ex: Good Deeds is literally good deeds that are done). Once we clarified how allegory related to the characters/play they were much more eager to engage in this activity! It could not have gone better! The students were so creative with how they chose to embody their characters, for example one student was Confession and she told her peers that she was at a party with her friends and she played truth or dare, but she only chose truth and refused to choose dare. Another student was Beauty and he could be overheard telling his peers that he was "too pretty to play sports" and that he would rather look at himself in the mirror instead. The level of creativity that was displayed made me so happy and proud. For the next two days we had the students reading the play in class. After the first day, we noticed that the language in the play was an issue for the students. We had made frequent stops to check for comprehension, but we needed to do more to help the students with the play. Our second day of reading we passed our a vocab sheet to the students so that they could have the definitions of some of the commonly unknown words in front of them. I noticed that they had a much easier time with this.
On our fourth day of teaching, our professor came to observe us. It was on this day that we chose to have the students engage in a discussion in the literary salon that our CT had established. We had broken the students up into small groups of 4-5 students to have them first discuss the questions among themselves. Some students were absent on the previous day, so this was a great opportunity for them to be included and catch up on what they had missed. We then entered the salon and engaged in our discussion. These students had some amazing points that they wanted to make. One student compared this text to the two previous texts that were read in class! Reflecting back on this, I wish that my TP and I had stepped back a little and given our students just a little more control by not jumping in with our own comments as often. But overall, I loved how this went. The students posed some great questions to each other, everybody was respectful, and they took the discussion to levels that I could not have even imagined.
I did not want to leave today! Our students were sad to see us go and I was sad to be leaving. I have learned so much about myself as a teacher and what my strengths and weaknesses are as a teacher. I had previously thought that wait time was not something that I needed to walk on, but I was wrong! I learned how much planning goes into every single aspect of both planning and executing a lesson! But most of all, I learned that this is something that I REALLY want to do and love to do. Teaching is my passion and I have been very lucky to have had these opportunities at such an amazing placement!

Music in the Classroom

            I had a really interesting experience at my SPED Practicum placement that I would like to share. The two teachers that I observed both incorporated music into their lessons. This is not something that I am used to observing, but the students responded really well to this.

            The first classroom that I observed is a 10^th grade English class which is co-taught by an English teacher and a Special Education teacher. The students are doing a unit on Poe and had just finished The Masque of the Red Death. The teacher made a connection between John Mayer’s song “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” and the story. The students were prompted to “compare the song to the text using a line from the song, connect to the text through the theme, character, or setting. How does this relate to the “real world?” Write 5-6 sentences.” The song was played for the students and they were given a handout with the lyrics on it. The students made very basic, surface connections between the story and our society via the lyrics. They were really excited about this assignment and because it counted as a quiz grade, they took it seriously.

            The second classroom that I observed in was a 12^th grade English class that was co-taught by an English teacher (different from the first class) and a Special Education teacher (same one from the first class). The English teacher in this class is actually the RI teacher of the year, so I was really looking forward to observing her. This class had just finished reading Boccaccio’s Federigo’s Falcon and answered 14 comprehension questions on it. At the end of the class the students watched a video by the group Straight No Chaser doing a mash up of “Bad Romance” and “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga. These students found it easy to make connections between the lyrics and the story. This was shown at the end of the class so there was a quick discussion about the connections, but I would have been interested in knowing where the discussion would have gone if they had more time.

            When I was in high school, my teachers never incorporated music into the lessons. I very much enjoyed watching how the teachers used music in their classrooms and the reactions of the students. Music is a medium that is not often used in classrooms but when used correctly, can be extremely effective. When the music was playing, the students were fully attentive and quiet. I love observing new things! This is something that I want to use in my classroom but would like to observe it more in other classrooms first.

 http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnmayer/slowdancinginaburningroom.html

Teaching Lower Level Comprehension Students

            Today my Teaching Partner (TP) and I had the opportunity to teach a class that was a bit different from the four classes we’ve been observing and teaching. This class was a lot smaller in size than what we were used too, with only 15 students. What makes this class different from the other classes that we have been observing/teaching is that this class is lower level comprehension and has more behavioral issues. This is the type of class that I have been dying to observe/teach!         (As you folks already know, I am a Secondary Education major with a concentration in English but I am also getting certified to teach Special Education: Mild to Moderate.)

I have experience being in classrooms that are considered lower level comprehension, that are filled with kids who have IEPs or behavioral issues (and I am not saying that these are the students who are always in lower level comprehension classes, I am merely saying that these are the classrooms that I have observed/taught) and it is so different from teaching/observing a honors or college prep class. These are the students who challenge me, test me, and remind me of why I want to be a teacher. I get so much out of these classes and I always leave with more knowledge than I entered the classroom with. The class that my TP and I taught today was not any different.

            These students did not approve of the disruption of their daily routine that was my TP and I, but still we carried on. We were warned that the students in this class were going to be very talkative and this proved to be true. I used my “teacher voice” and started reviewing the homework with class while our CT walked up and down the aisles checking it. Then we started filling out a worksheet filled with 9 questions meant to help the students review for their test on The Crucible. I noticed that there seemed to be the same five students raising their hands to volunteer answers, so my TP and I encouraged the other students to talk by saying “Let’s hear from somebody who hasn’t given an answer yet” and this worked! When we started reading Act 4, the students became a little antsy. From my background in Special Education, I know that this can sometimes be curbed simply by standing next to or near the desk of a student who is particularly antsy or off task. You don’t have to embarrass the student in front of their peers, you simply just stand near them. My TP stood between two aisles on one side of the room while I placed my copy of The Crucible on the desk next to a student who was off task. This helped us regain control of our classroom and kept everything pretty calm.

            These students tripped over words that the other classes had not and they read aloud at a much slower pace. We often stopped the readings in appropriate spots to check for comprehension, which is not something that we did with the other classes. I loved the opportunity to teach The Crucible through the eyes of reluctant learners. I enjoyed observing the literacy skills that they employed to sound out words or gain meaning from the text.  These students aren't bad students, they just require us to use different techniques. They certainly kept us on our toes, but we did not falter. I hope to have an opportunity to work with these students again. 

My First Practicum Week!

This week was filled with early mornings and long nights spent with lesson plans (and I wouldn't trade it for anything!).  I was nervous as I approached this week, but I think that a little nerves are healthy. My CT had emailed me and said that she believed in giving teacher candidates immediate hands on experience, which I loved. We observed for a little while and then were given the opportunity to work with the sophomores as they read The Crucible. My teaching partner and I were given roles to read in the play and I was taken aback at how excited the kids were to read their lines. This excitement fueled me to use my strongest reading voice and to make sure that I projected and expressed emotion as I read my lines. The senior classes that my CT teaches started reading Buried Child when we first went to observe. I am excited to observe and co-teach the students from start to finish with this play!
            My teaching partner and I were given an awesome opportunity to chaperone a field trip with the two senior classes to see King Lear being performed! There were 40 students who went on this field trip and their excitement was palpable as they got on the bus. These students were so mature throughout this whole experience and there was not one instance where a student had to be reprimanded. The play itself was filled with talented actors who put on an amazing performance.  The discussion that the students had after the play demonstrated their maturity and understanding of King Lear on a deeper level of reading comprehension than just the literal level.

On our third trip to the school, my teaching partner and I were given the opportunity to teach the senior class about SDQR charts and lead them through Act 2 of Buried Child. Our CT let us lead the reading of The Crucible with both of her 10^th grade classes and for one of the 10^th grade classes we were able to lead them through their vocabulary as well! I found this a great opportunity to practice writing on the whiteboard (which is one of my weak areas that I need to work on) and I was surprised that my writing was straight for the most part! The 10^th graders needed some direction/scaffolding to get them to read with emotion, so we had the students evaluate what emotion their characters were feeling and then made them reread certain lines with that emotion. Once the students got going, they were really into it!

The senior class was the one that we taught the SDQR chart to. We lead them through most of Act 2 of Buried Child and then modeled how to use a SDQR chart. Our CT liked this and assigned them homework based around finishing Act 2 and completing an SDQR chart with it. The thing that I was most surprised by was the level of enthusiasm with these students as well as their demonstration of critical thinking skills. I think that they felt more comfortable around my TP and I simply because we had spent three days this week with them, as opposed to the 10th graders who were only seeing us for the second time. 

Both classes had a blast reading their respective plays and that felt so rewarding to me! I loved knowing that we were able to make this fun for them. I loved that the students liked our lessons and it inspired to me continue striving to make lessons that were informational as well as well received. I'm really excited to see what next week holds for me!