The Importance of Knowing Your Classes

I have been teaching my period four class since January and I've come to know them really well  both collectively and individually. I know when I am planning my lessons that they will get taught to this class first. So naturally, I am planning my lessons with this class in mind. I know how fast we will get through some things and how we will need a little more time on other things. Because I have spent so much time with them, I know exactly how much to plan for each day.

My other classes are not like this. My period three class will fly through an activity or lesson in one class period whereas period four took two full class periods with the same activity or lesson. My period two class needs to have things slowed down, and we spend a lot of time on each piece of literature we read and each activity we do. This is fine. It didn't occur to me when I first took over the class that what works well with one class might go over like a lead balloon with another class (it seems so obvious, right?). I like that I get to plan to teach the same lesson three different ways. It keeps things interesting, it keeps me looking at these lessons in different ways, and it is always done with the best interest of the students in mind. 

Yesterday, my period three class finished their makeovers of J. Alfred Prufrock after having one class period prior to this dedicated to the makeover and we were able to do three poems by E.E. Cummings. It took my period four class 2 days for the make over and 1 day on E.E. Cummings and we were only able to look at one poem. I suspect that my period two class will take two days just doing the makeover and another class period for the presentations. When it comes time to do E.E. Cummings, I know that if I plan to read three of his poems, this will be unrealistic. That would completely confuse the students and wouldn't be in any way beneficial to what I am trying to do with E.E. Cummings, AND THAT IS OKAY! I like that I have to prepare comprehension questions for period four, but not period three. I enjoy finding ways to relate the literature to my period two class so that they can use text to self connections to deepen their understanding of the literature. Each student is different, each class is different, and it just makes sense that each lesson should be different as well! It's one of those things that is so obvious, I just never thought about it.

I love that I teach the same lesson three different ways. As long as the students end each lesson with the same level of understanding about the literature, I am happy and it doesn't matter how we got to that point. I will probably finish my unit plan with my period four class at some point in the next week and a half and I get to teach them Of Mice and Men! I am most likely going to get through Of Mice and Men with my period three and four class with time left to be able to schedule activities to complete during our reading of the novel. My period two class may not get through the whole novel before May 9th and some of the activities that I have planned may not be the best way for them to connect with the book. This just means I get to look at the book through their eyes and plan to teach them in a way that is tailored specifically to that class.