Day Four: LESSON FOUR: EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY, IF YOU JUST GIVETHEM A VENUE TO SAY IT

9 January 2014

DAY FOUR

LESSON FOUR: EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING TO SAY, IF YOU JUST GIVE THEM A VENUE TO SAY IT

When I arrived at school today, Principal Tom Anderson took me into the office and began asking me questions about my educational background and work experience. He was confused as to whether I had a teacher certificate or not. I finally learned that the reason for his inquiries was that he wanted to know if I would be willing to be an emergency sub when a teacher had to go home sick, or a sub couldn’t be located, or a paraeducator was missing and a teacher needed help in the room. I said that of course I would

The first hour of the day was something SMS calls “Wolfpack.” A group of students is assigned to a particular teacher for their entire middle school career. A couple of times a month, they meet with this teacher to review their grades, any missing assignments, and to work on some other educational project. This week, they filled out a career interest inventory. I tried to help by explaining to students what was involved in some of the careers listed.

For the next two (two-hour block) classes, we took students to the computer lab to go online to use websites designed to teach them the countries of Europe. I tried to work with groups of troublemaking students to keep them on task.

When we returned to the classroom, Allison asked them to predict the score of the upcoming Seahawks game (she is a huge Seahawks fan). The student who gets closest will win a prize on Monday.

Then, they went through a couple paragraphs in their history book together (following along as she read from the book that was also shown on the document camera.

She then asked them some questions regarding the geography of Greece. For example:

Allison: “What does isolated mean?”

Student: “Like, really cold and covered with ice.”

8th Grade

Yesterday, after class, I had talked to Allison about how impressed I was with the answers of the two students the day before—the two who were consistent troublemakers, never seemed to be paying attention, but had given insightful comments to Allison’s questions. At the beginning of this class, she told the class that I had been impressed, and asked the two boys to repeat their comments—which they did, with pride, and even expounded on what they had said. For the rest of the day, they had their hands up regularly.

I decided to sit next to one student, TM, who was a consistent troublemaker and very disruptive. He never did what he was asked to do during class. So, each step in the workbook that he was asked to do, I would repeat the instructions to him and walk him through the process of doing it. For the entire time, he focused, did the work, whispered when talking to me, and was not distracted by (or distracting to) other students. The tasks the students were asked to do in the workbook:

·         Draw a sketch of a projected transparency of a political cartoon

·         Choose whether they would have chosen an isolationist or involvement policy

·         Write a motto that promotes your group’s position

·         Write a slogan for your group to chant during a rally

·         Read Section 12.4 of the chapter and summarize what happened

This student TM leaned toward isolationism. When I asked him to come up with a motto, he suggested, “Screw it! Let them work it out!” I told him this was a great motto; he responded: “But I can’t write that!”

I asked him how he might modify the motto to be more appropriate and he wrote it without the “Screw it!” His slogan was “Foreigners go away!”

He summarized the chapter quickly and effectively, then wanted to talk to me about political theories. He understood that the current political situation in the US was going to impact him in the future. He was cogent, well-reasoned, and interested. In the class discussion that followed, Allison asked them to share their responses. I urged TM to share his, and he looked at me shocked: “I don’t share,” he said.

“You should!” I told him. “These are good answers!”

“I don’t share—I never speak in class,” he said more quietly.

I smiled. That’s what he thinks. He’ll be commenting in class before my student teaching ends.

Without warning, Allison asked me to take over the class shortly after the beginning of the hour. Unfortunately, what I was asked to do was read a page of the history text to the class. (?!?Read to a group of 31 rowdy students?!?) It was information designed to introduce the skit my group had prepared. It dealt with John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Barbary pirates. Rather than just read (which I did, loudly and with dramatic enthusiasm!), I stopped to talk to them about various topics: why pirates dressed the way they did, what pirates are, modern piracy, and isolationism vs. foreign affairs involvement. It became a good, but rowdy discussion. The students were interested, and they had things to say. After bringing up a topic that interested them, I had to allow them time to discuss it among themselves, which was loud and disorganized—but they were talking about the issues! They had opinions, and they wanted to share them. They asked questions of me to better understand the questions.

After that, my team did our skit—and the kids did very well! Not only with reading their parts, but also the audience (since they were the easier group that Allison had taken) were relatively attentive. My students were proud of their efforts.

I then attended an IEP meeting for a student I do not know well, then met with two teachers on my team to plan for upcoming lessons I might teach.

Lesson Four: Everyone has something to say, if you just give them a venue to say it.

Not every student speaks up in class; not every student raises his or her hand. Not every student wants to speak in front of a group; not every student uses written language to express him or herself. But every student has something to say. A teacher’s job is to give every student a venue to communicate. Identify it, and let the student know it is OK that they communicate in ways everyone else might not. Use it consistently with that student. If you want them to learn from you, be willing to learn from them, and about them.