Today I learned a valuable lesson: When to walk away.
I was subbing for a high school English/ ISS/ Plato teacher. I.S.S. and Plato really didn’t take much thought, the students pretty much do what they are supposed to do. I haven’t decided what I think about Plato yet. Its nice that the students get to learn at their own pace, and it allows them to take classes that aren’t offered when they are able to take it or that they have failed previously. What isn’t great about Plato is the fact that there is no one up their teaching the information, there are very few activities that cement the information in the student’s brain, and a student has to get a “b” to pass the class so they can retake tests and assignments as many times as they need to in order to get a good grade. On the other had, since students are able to work at their own pace, they always have something to do, they don’t have to wait for the other students to catch up to them and this means they don’t misbehave. Idle hands and all that you know.
The English class took a little more thought. It was a small class full of students that didn’t fit in with the regular English class; it covers the same material, just in a different way. This class was not offered last semester, but it was really needed. The students were taking a post-test formative assessment, but there were only enough computers for half of the class to be on the comp. at the same time. While one half was on the computers, the other half was starting a new unit by looking up vocabulary and applying it to a poem. I think this was probably supposed to be closer to Valentines Day originally so the teacher had them using a Shakespearean Sonnet, “My mistress’s eyes….”
This was a good activity, it walked the students step by step through analyzing the poem, they had just looked up the definitions for the terms so they should know what to do, but these students need a lot of help. They want you to hold their hand. I think there were two things I would change about this lesson. I wouldn’t have had them working on the poem when the classroom needs to be quiet so students can take a test. Poetry is scary for most students and starting them out like this is like throwing them out in a lake and telling them to sink or swim. Which leads me to the second thing I would change, I wouldn’t start out with a Shakespearean sonnet. Not only is poetry scary, Shakespeare is ultra scary. And asking them to work aloe on a poem that they are not comfortable with is just reinforcing their beliefs that they hate poetry and that it’s hard. It would have been cooler if it was right around V-day but because of snow days that wasn’t possible. I would start with song lyrics from a popular song. This would show the students that they really are familiar with poetry, they listen to it and recite it every day. You can still do rhyme scheme and interpretation. The students may not be able to look for iambic pentameter, but for the first day of poetry working on your own is that really necessary?
My lesson of the day happened when it was time to switch gears halfway through class. A student had been working on the vocabulary, but when it was time to switch to computers for the post test, he didn’t want to take the test. There was an article to go with the test and he was a lower level reader. He claimed that he didn’t know half of the words in the article and that he was going to fail the test. I discussed this with him calmly telling him that we needed the data that he would provide, and that it was okay if he didn’t do well, but he wouldn’t take that as an answer. After a little while the Para caught my eye and told me to walk away, so I did. Right after I walked away the student got up and began working on the test. I was shocked! We are told what to do in these situations and what works and why, but I guess my stubborn mind has to experience it for my self in order to accept it. Looking back I recall being told to just walk away, that the students are just wanting to get a rise out of you and that if you don’t engage in the conversation then they will back down. Well today, thanks to the Para, I finally learned that. I can be told what to do, but that doesn’t mean I have learned it, I have to experience it first hand for it to click, and I need to remember this when I am teaching my students.
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