Part 1: Storyboards
This week was a short week of
observations for Courtney and me. We saw the continuation of the media literacy
lesson where students practiced drafting their teaser trailers by drawing a 3
frame storyboard of their morning routine. Though some rolled their eyes and
sketched stick figures as quickly as they could, other students’ eyes lit up
and went to work crafting their mini-masterpieces. Since the students had been
doing so much informational writing with their compare/contrast essay and quote
sandwiches, I think this project breathed some life into the classroom. This
gives me hope that the students will respond well to our idea for a creative
application of the literary techniques we will be studying in “The Tell Tale
Heart.”
Part 2: Goals
Since compare/contrast essays and
quote sandwiches aren’t necessarily the most inspiring pieces of writing, one
of me and Courtney’s collaborative goals is to provide space for more creative
expression. At the end of this mini-unit on suspense, suspicion, and unreliable
narrators via “The Tell Tale Heart,” we plan to have students show their
understanding by creating mini skits of a suspenseful moment. We think we will
provide them with a setting, a conflict, or some other pieces to work with, and
they will have to put them together and share with the class. Our second collaborative goal is to balance our voices with the voices of the students. This becomes an individual goal, however, because Courtney and I had opposite struggles with voice in our high school experiences. While she has mentioned that she needs to give more wait time, I know that I need to do a better job responding to students’ answers. I need to practice validating, challenging, and adding onto student contributions.
Coincidentally, I do feel a bit
of suspense heading into this week of teaching. The anticipation has been
building over these last weeks, and without a chance to go back to the school
before we teach (and get observed!) on Monday, I’m left just reeling in my own
imaginings of what might happen. I am confident though, that our fate will be
better than Chrissie and her last swim - the famous clip from Jaws that we will be showing as part of
our first lesson…
Part 3: Inspiration
Kids say the darndest things,
right? Well, in case that Thanksgiving tryptophan still has you a little drowsy
or planning a week’s worth of lessons has you bogged down, here’s some love
from YouTube’s biggest little stars:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaIvk1cSyG8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg
Brittany, I love your idea of having students perform their own mini suspense skit. Providing them with possible conflicts will be a good way to get them started since this may be something out of their comfort zone. Challenging student responses and adding on to their contributions is something that I myself also need to work on. We never know what students are going to say so it is impossible to have a prepared response. Knowing exactly how to respond to students isn't something that can be scripted in our lesson plans but must be an on the spot reaction rooted from all the knowledge we've gained over the years. Good luck this upcoming week!
ReplyDeleteBrittany I really like your idea of giving students pieces for them to go on and develop it into what they desire. This is a recipe for inspiring students to take ownership of their learning and that for me is one of the biggest most important aspects of teaching; not having the whole lesson rely on the teacher/s. It is cool that we do not all feel like experts, instead we are going into this week thinking of ways that we can possibly master more of the vast teaching world. Good luck to both of you and I hope it goes much more better than jaws, although i'm sure it will.
ReplyDelete