Monday, October 18, 2010

Chapter 4 Reflection

When reading Chapter 4 of Content Literacy for Today’s Adolescents, I kept thinking of one topic I’ve been continually discussing with my roommate – student interest and engagment. Teaching English would be exponentially easier if every lesson incorporated something that interested the student. Like most things in life, however, that is much easier said than done. Trying to find real life connections between my English objective and my students’ lives is quite the difficult task. Like Brozo and Simpson write on page 90, “Interest is one of the most potent motivators for students,” but as I would like to add, one of the harder tasks a teacher encounters. The idea is revisited on page 101 with “learner autobiographies.” I enjoyed reading about this activity and would like to implement it in my English class. My only hesitation is that some or most students will not take it seriously. Another problem my students might face is the inability to express their thoughts due to a lack of vocabulary and writing ability. I’ve also wondered whether or not my students have an interest in anything that would require them to think on a higher DOK level. At times I feel that many of my students would avoid higher level thinking like the plague and immediately recoil from its presence. Regardless, attempting an activity such as learner autobiographies can only help so it’s worth a shot.
I found this chapter to be very readable and applicable to my life as a first year teacher. Some of the ideas, such as creating an assessment portfolio are wonderful, but like I mentioned earlier, are much easier said than done. Implementing a portfolio would be great for the teacher’s reference, for showing student growth, and also for documentation and later references. Creating assessment portfolios would be an immense amount of work. I’m currently trying my hardest to just stay afloat with a ten pound brick already in my hand. Anyway, the chapter reminds us that assessment is not “an activity that teachers ‘do to students,’” but an “ongoing activity” that includes both teachers and students and the evolution of instruction and learning (89). I need to focus more on interpreting assessment data. I’m okay with giving assessments (although, mine could probably always be improved), but I need to spend more time studying the data that comes from it. From this, my teaching can be improved and my students can learn better.

6 comments:

  1. Because I teach upper elementary and not even middle school, I think the portfolio falls flat for me. My students' writing is so no there that is well-nigh scary. They have yet to master style and content and clarity. At this point, I want to write sentences that follow subject-verb-object format, not just a trail of meandering words. Good job!

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  2. Making learning interesting for my kids is very difficult. Even teaching science where doing demonstrations should be fun, they seem to not care one bit. Little by little enthusiasm starts to break them down! Phrases and clauses day, Mr. Preacher!!!

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  3. Preach, Preacher! These kids make Ancient Egypt seem boring sometimes, and the lack of interest combined withthe lack of background knowledge in geography and vocabulary does not help at all. I think it gets easier to make things more interesting as you learn more about your students and what level they're on. Keep up the good work!

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  4. Getting through American Lit with them is INSANELY hard because they are just not at all interested in the stories. They have no historical context for any of the literature we read. The only thing that entertains them are stories with lots of violence, and there aren't that many really quality American short stories with a huge amount of blood and guts in them.

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  5. Charlie I totally agree. Student interest has been an issue since day one and its so frustrating because there is this GIANT state test that we are trying to prepare for but none of the students care. How am I suppose to do my job?

    I think some of the issue is that we have a large portion of students that have failed many times, are older than everyone else, and frankly could careless about Algebra 1. Please tell me how I am suppose to make a student like that care about my class? And if they don't care, they just disrupt the rest of the class! Ugh. so frustrating.

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  6. Preacher!

    Student engagement is probably an issue for most of us in the program. If it's not Nicki Minaj or Lil' Weezy...they're not interested. One thing I've found works wonders with my 7th graders is games! They love review games or any type of "game." And of course they get into my songs too! ;) Charlie! I'm your neighbor! Let's brainstorm together and get your kids FIRED UP about the Roman Empire!

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