I stood outside the closed classroom door having small talk with the students as I waited for the teacher. The bell for class to start rang as I found myself standing in front the curious students. The teacher introduced me as a series of questions started to quick fire in my direction. "How tall are you?" "Where are you from?" etc. The teacher prompt students to grab their computers and get to work on their assignment for the day. The assignment that they did three other days a week also. It is called Reading Plus. It is a web program that serves "...students in grades 3 and up that transforms how, what, and why students read while broadening interests and building knowledge" (Readingplus). The students sat silently as I spoke to my mentor teacher about the preliminaries, future meeting times, what she does throughout her day and, yes, this program. Now, I know that this experience is teacher focused, but I don't think I can help but write about this.
The students sat in
front of their screens for approximately 45 minutes. They worked on
reading comprehension, speed reading and decoding. By the end of the 45
minutes all of the students were silent. Burnt out. Not having fun. How can
real learning happen if there if the brain is not being fully activated through
fun? So, in class this week we went through some techniques in how to
connect and activate students minds. I would like to apply a few of
these and offer some situations that they can be utilized.
Comprehension and Speed Reading through Quick Sketches:
Students will first read an article in their Upfront (NYTimes)
of their choosing. They will then sketch what that article is about. In groups
of three, students will swap sketches and speed read through articles to figure
out which article the sketcher is communicating.
This is just an idea that has not been put
into practice, but I just feel very disheartened that those
students have to practice these skills through this process. It will not
make them motivated to pursuing life long reading. Hopefully something like this can be later incorporated in this classroom, or my future classroom.
I was at Bloomington High School for three class periods the first day, and my mentors planning period the following day. I was able to see how she prepared for classes, grade some assignments, and gain some insight into how the logistics of how the High School worked. This included submitting forms to get some new books, getting a call at the last second because a substitute teacher did not show up, and taking time to prep for the following period.
I was at Bloomington High School for three class periods the first day, and my mentors planning period the following day. I was able to see how she prepared for classes, grade some assignments, and gain some insight into how the logistics of how the High School worked. This included submitting forms to get some new books, getting a call at the last second because a substitute teacher did not show up, and taking time to prep for the following period.
