Week Two Readings

In chapter five, BPR, really made me realize that most of the discussions I have experienced have been very teacher driven. As students, I feel we grew up expecting a classroom to be run this way. Then, as we got into college, we were almost dumbfounded and “silent” when we were supposed to generate the conversation. One issue they bring up is the debate. This was an interesting one, because most teachers feel that this is such a great way to generate discussion. However, as the book mentions, there usually has to be a loser. This really made me think of an experience I had while observing last week. My CT shares her classroom with a S.S. teacher. I sat and listened as she explained her “great” idea for the kids to learn different types of governments. Here’s how it went. A group of students were assigned a government and they had to debate with other forms of governments, to prove why there’s was the best. Depending on how well they did this, one government got an A, one a B, one a C, one a D, and one an F. I sat there and watched as the teacher joked that Democracy almost always fails. I really thought this was a poor way to conduct a debate, as well as to grade. I personally would be really mad if my group did really well, but only one group was allowed to get an A, and we weren’t it. It just seemed like a prime example of how teachers feel that incorporating a “debate” into a lesson, makes it some great lesson, when in essence it can be run very poorly.

There were a lot of helpful activities in this chapter as well. I really liked the idea of students creating their own questions. I feel that first of all, it really holds students accountable for their reading. No student wants to look stupid in front of their peers. So, they will at least try to prepare questions related to the text. Also, I feel that students will want to try and have intelligent questions. If they decide not to participate, I kind-of like the idea from the online readings, where their group members will decide what to do with them if they come unprepared. A student might not care what his teacher thinks, but they do have an image to uphold in front of their peers. This activity also struck me, because it really takes students away from relying on the same old worksheet from the teacher, and helps them to begin to learn how to critically think about a text. This whole chapter really had some great ideas about helping to facilitate the skill of discussion. I mean who would have ever thought that press conferences could be such a helpful tool. This chapter, along with the M and M pages, helped me to feel like I will be able to better prepare my students for discussion, then I was, so hopefully they will feel comfortable and confidant in front of a classroom.

I haven’t had much experience, and honestly don’t feel prepared to deal with these new genre’s. Therefore, chapter six was also quite helpful. I am just not used to those types of books. However, I do feel that books like this really invite more students in to the process of reading, and help them enjoy reading a lot more which is the ultimate goal. On pg. 71, they talk about new books coming out that are really breaking the stereotypic characters. I think it would be really a good activity if the students could take one of their favorite fairy tales, stories, or novels, and tell it as if they were the character. Or, as an activity at the beginning, or end of the year (once they’ve gotten to know the students) tell it from the perspective of another classmate, to see how the story might change from a different point of view. The book also mentioned a playlist. My CT does this with her students, so I will hopefully get to see firsthand how this activity plays out in a classroom setting, which should be pretty interesting. This chapter also gave me a lot of examples of books. I know I can’t include all of them in a classroom library. However, I was wondering where you draw the line on maybe a suggested list. Can you list books under different categories, as long as they aren’t in the school?

Finally, the online reading gave some really helpful activities and lessons. They really showed how you can begin to put more responsibility into the student’s hands. It also shed light on ways to avoid things in the classroom. For example, last week, a student said he didn’t like the book he got from the library, because it wasn’t what he thought it would be by looking at it. However, I would have never thought to do an activity like the book pass, which could help you to avoid hearing the same old excuse, “but I don’t like my book.” I felt that most of the activities were quite helpful, and new to me.