Moving on...

Last week, I read to the class again a couple of days. They like hearing it aloud. Then on Friday, they took a test on The Outsiders. The test was really long, so I'm sure they will have to finish it on Monday. The first part was matching character names with the correct characteristics. Then, they wrote a five paragraph essay explaining 3 possible challenges Darry (the 20-year-old brother) may run into if he gains custody of Sodapop and Ponyboy. She told them she expected 3-5 sentences in each paragraph. After the essay, they filled in a worksheet that had 5 keys on it, and they were instructed to name 5 key events from The Outsiders, one on each key. The last part of the test was cause and effect, and the students picked 10 events that caused something else to happen (cause and effect). Most of the test was subjective, so the students will probably get good grades on it as long as they read the book and can write well.

Reading Out Loud

Last week at TFAA, I read chapter 7 of The Outsiders to the class. The previous week, I let them read the chapter, so this week I asked them if they would rather read or if they wanted me to read. Most of the students wanted to hear me read to them, so I did. Most of them were attentive, so I think they enjoyed it and were paying attention. They have to answer questions for each chapter and fill out an ongoing character list, so they usually pay attention so they can get that done. I'm eager to see them start the literature circles that Ms. Townes had told me about before the first of the school year. They are halfway through The Outsiders, so maybe after they are finished with this book, I will get to see them in groups reading, discussing, and presenting to the class.

Reading The Outsiders

Mrs. Townes' 7th graders are now reading The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. She gave them questions to answer on chapters 1-3 for Wednesday as well as a character list and gang list for them to fill in information such as physical appearance, personality characteristics, and major event. They will continue to add to their character and gang lists until they are finished reading the book. I think that is a great idea. My junior year in high school, my teacher had my class keep character notecards, and it was very handy to have around, especially when I started writing the paper she assigned. Back to the practicum...I facilitated discussion about chapters 1-3 by going over the questions and character lists with them. This class is very talkative and eager to respond. It helped that they had already answered the questions as their homework because they were prepared to discuss the book.

Today we read chapter 4 and part of chapter 5 out loud in class. I started by reading a couple of pages, and then let the students read down the line using the tap method--when the reader is tired of reading aloud, he/she taps the person next to him/her so that person will start reading. If someone does not want to read, they just tap the next person to keep it going. It worked out pretty well; although, I think the ones who were listening liked it better when I read to them. They are on fall break next week, so they are eager to start their break!

Elizabeth

This week

This week, I observed more and graded papers. The papers I graded were sentences the students wrote using vocabulary words from "Wordly Wise." I noticed that many of the students had associations with some of the words, and they sometimes used those words incorrectly in their sentences. For example, "renaissance" was misused a few times because many of the students have heard about the British Renaissance or have been to the Renaissance Festival, but do not know that the word means "rebirth." One student's sentence read something like--During the renaissance, the people had a lot of livestock and food. Whether or not that's true, the student did not show in the sentence that he/she knew the meaning of the word. On the other hand, a word that was used correctly by many students was "immortality," which they associated with the book Tuck Everlasting. What I learned from this is that as a teacher, I should be aware that students associate words. I can use associations to help them remember meanings of words easier, but I should be careful to help them understand the true meaning of the words.

Another thing I noticed as I graded papers was how often the students left out commas, misspelled words, or ended sentences with prepositions like "at." Sometimes a quick grammar lesson is necessary, even for students who are above average. As a secondary education teacher, I will have to deal with little grammatical errors that students do because either they did not fully understand the rules in the first place or their elementary teachers did not teach them correctly. Many people have a hard time with English grammar, understandably.

Meeting with Ms. Townes and Observation so far...

I met with Ms. Townes for the second time about a week ago. We had previously decided through email to meet at 3:00 that day. She forgot I was coming, so luckily I caught her before she left. She told me that she likes her students to participate in projects and hands-on activitites often. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, she teaches reading, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she focuses on vocabulary and grammar. For the first month of school, her students are working in the book to get back in the routine of school, and then they will begin their projects. She will provide books for her students to pick out, and they will arrange themselves into literature circles where they will work out a time-plan to read the book, discuss it, and do projects/assignments within Ms. Townes' guidelines.

I like Ms. Townes' plans for her students because I can tell you from my own experiences that giving adolescents choices is a good idea!! When I was in 7th grade, my reading teacher let us pick out books to read, and similarly to Ms. Townes' classes, we grouped into literature circles and discussed the books we read. What I liked most about it was that I was able to choose the book I read (from about 4 or 5 that my teacher provided). I still remember some of them, too--The Giver, They Cage the Animals at Night, and A Time for Dancing. I loved all of these books! Previously, in 6th grade, I did not have a very positive experience in my reading class because that was a transition year, and I no longer had a choice in what books I read for school. This was very very different from 5th grade where my class went to the library every week and picked out a book to read for fun. I had no problems reading in fifth grade, but 6th grade was a very different year in reading class. I'll admit that I'm pretty stubborn, so I did not like someone else telling me that I was going to read some book that I wasn't at all interested in, and even in high school, I struggled with finding the motivation to read books that were assigneed to me. I was an honors student, and I made good grades, but it was the hardest thing for me to make myself read books that I didn't pick out! As a child, I loved reading, but when 6th grade came along, all of a sudden I hated it. At that age, it's very important to give students choices in their learning experience. They hate feeling forced into doing things they do not want to do. (By the way, I finally matured enough to make myself read things that I don't pick out...haha. I guess I wouldn't have made it this far if I hadn't gotten over it!) Also, though, Ms. Townes told me that she wasn't much of a reader in school, so I wonder if she had a similar experience.

Moving on...

Wednesday, Sept. 3rd, I observed Ms. Townes' class. We previously decided that I would come every Wednesday and Friday at 1:30-2:30. She forgot I was coming again. Wednesday was progress report day, so the students read and/or worked on vocabulary in their workbooks. It looked like there were about 20 students in the class. I guess I don't have much more to say about Wednesday because there wasn't much to observe.

A Little Bit About Me

My name is Elizabeth Oliver, I am a senior at MTSU, and I'm planning to graduate in Dec. 2009. I'm working on a bachelor's degree in English, concentrating in Secondary Education. I hope to teach middle school because it was my favorite time in grade school, and I just like that age group. I know this sounds strange to some. (I've heard many middle school horror stories from other people!) But I guess everyone can have a different experience! I loved it, and I hope I can bring something fun and interesting to my future students that will make their middle school experience more pleasant. I'm participating in a service learning practicum this semester because I want to get experienced in the classroom as much as possible before I begin student teaching and then...real teaching! I want to be as prepared as possible, and there are plenty of ways I can do that. This is one way. I also just started substitute teaching because, like I said, I want to get in the classroom as much as possible. Well, that's a little bit about me.