Time Management

One of the issues I have come across during my intern experience at North Marion is creating lessons that last the entire class period. On some days, I will plan time for students to ask questions and discuss and it turns out they are not as talkative as I had initially hoped. In this case, I refer to my backup plans. When lesson planning, I always try to think of something to take up time in case the material being covered does not take long enough. In one instance, my lesson ended about 15 minutes sooner than I had anticipated, so I quickly looked through my Grammar Textbook Teacher's Manual and found three pages for the students to review. They were preparing to give speeches and the book had some very helpful tips for improving their presentations and oratory skills. The students did not seem to notice the improvisation and I was much more prepared for the following two classes.

Grading subjectively

One of the most challenging issues in teaching English/Language Arts is the requirement of grading subjectively. In other words, there is not always a right or wrong answer, and often times final evaluations are based on the teacher's idea of what is acceptable/unacceptable. Subjectivity in grading was one reason I chose to focus my action research on modeling as a teaching technique. As English educators we do not always have a rubric to follow word-for-word, so in order for students to understand expectations we must provide them with explicit instruction.
This week the seniors are giving speeches on their author papers which they wrote in October. I was a bit nervous about grading the speeches because I was not sure what to expect. The last time I saw students of that age present to the class I was a peer, not a teacher. However, I was extremely pleased with the students presentations. They were very well-spoken and well-prepared. My host teacher developed a rubric for grading purposes. This was a great way of developing a score for the speech, but she and I both agreed that if we felt a student deserved a different grade we would make the necessary changes.

Addressing Different Learning Styles

These next two weeks will be all about addressing various learning styles. The seniors are finishing up their exam on Pygmalion and the juniors will be turning in their rough drafts of their research paper on Tuesday. This leaves me some time to work on revising and editing strategies with the eleventh graders and also presents an opportunity for creative review activities for test preparation in the twelfth grade classes.

In order to ensure the test review will be creative and empowering for the students, I will ask that they separate into two teams. Each team will create 10 study guide questions for the opposing team. After completion, I will read the questions to the opponent and if they answer correctly, I will allow them to either put an X or O on the Tic-Tac-Toe board. The students will hopefully generate challenging questions in order to keep the other team from winning.

For the juniors, I will use a variety of methods to facilitate their understanding of effective editing and revising. I will use visuals, provide audio, and allow the students to work independently. However, the most exciting activity I have planned for the week is for teaching active versus passive voice. The students will be the parts of the sentence (i.e. subject, verb, adjective). Up to eight students will stand in the front of the class while their classmates rearrange them so that the passive sentence become active. For example, "The ball was caught by her" will be changed to "She caught the ball." I'm excited to see the students up and moving around, while also studying important concepts for improving their papers.

Teaching Literature

The entirety of my week was spent teaching seniors the famous play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. I was extremely excited to teach this play to my students because it was one of my favorite texts I read in undergrad. One reason, in particular, that I chose this piece of literature was because language variation and dialect prejudices are major themes throughout the play. The students at North Marion High School demonstrate a wide variety of dialects, so I thought it would be interesting for them to read about social class distinctions based on linguistic differences.

Upon completing the introductory language unit, the students were asked to choose a role to play. They were, for the most part, eager to read and showed enthusiasm on the first day. However, as the play continued the students became less eager and more monotonous. At this point, I began to reevaluate my teaching methods in order to provide the most beneficial learning experience for all of my seniors. I decided that by modeling the way to read the script the students would be more likely to regain confidence and enthusiasm. I read the words of several main characters in the play in an authentic manner so that the students would clearly understand my expectations for their performances. I noticed a slight difference in the students' tones afterwards, but they began to drift off again towards the end.

Teaching a play as a piece of literature has produced some challenges, especially when it comes to visualizing the performance while reading. This particular play also has a very anticlimactic ending, so the students were a bit disappointed. In the future, I would like to have my students practice their parts prior to reading with the class. I think this would make the play more interesting and entertaining for both the readers and audience/listeners. I would also like to make the unit more student-centered by allowing some Socratic discussion among the students so that they evaluate the text on their own.