The Gifted Student

Every day I come to class and feel there is nothing I can learn. I loathe having to come and do the same routine every day. I want a challenge! I am in an honors class and feel time wasting. I drawl while others learn. I distract with questions not pertaining to the lesson. I wonder if anyone gets me. I feel my path for obtaining knowledge with always be lonely. I ask again, “does anyone get me? Will my teacher teach something useful or interesting to me?”

One of my students has voiced these sentences above in so many words.  What concerns me is how do I challenge this student? He still has to learn what everyone else is also learning but needs his part of the assignment to have more of a challenge to it. This student respects me and we share some same interest. I know communication is there. His home life involves his parents giving him extra homework assignments, which are related to school subjects. I find his social skills to be lacking because everything surrounds school work. How do I give more assignments that also work on social skills? Peter Smagorinsky talks about a ‘Talk Show Format” which allows students to have a student lead discussion, while playing characters and acting out literature like a talk show (34). I like the social lesson involved here. The student I am thinking of will interact with his peers and get a chance to lead the discussion. More student lead activities will help with the in-school-boredom but I still want some independent Ideas.  Smagorinsky also says, “By engaging in these activity-oriented, student-centered means of discussion, students become more active agents of their learning and rise to a higher level of expectation for their engagements with literature (44).” Based on this quote my student will be challenged allowing him to grown and not keep saying he is bored or not learning anything.

As a whole I am gaining a lot of experience with my CT. I have finally seen Philosophical chairs. The students were very passionate about the position they took on the argument.  It was exciting to hear them use phrases like, “That may be true however, or you make an interesting point but what about” they were full of energy. One of my students said something a little startling, “We should just kill them all, innocent or not.” The student was really serious with a straight face when she said it. Her peers didn’t say much and my CT just said, “Let’s make sure we are using evidence found in are text or from other reliable sources.” The students all get along and are in support of each other (this makes philosophical chairs a little easier).

Reflecting on last week, I gave a few review games to my CT that I found online. She is planning on using one of them for the next test. I like when I am not just an extra person in the room. I think the CT I currently have is my favorite. She gives me feedback and values my opinion. She has a lot of resources as well.

References:

Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English By Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2008. Print.

A Shining Moment/A Hindering Obstacle

A Shining Moment/A Hindering Obstacle

 

My experiences, thus far, have been occupied with learning the differences among my students. The idea that there are many seminaries that teenagers share seems to be an overreaching idea for me. I find myself overwhelmed at times trying to keep all of the class engaged in the concept that is being taught; especially with so many personalities. That being said, I am building personal connection with all my students.

 

I am teaching an English honor class with an occupancy of twenty-two students. I had been teaching the lower students in my previous assignments so I found the higher level learners to be an interesting change. In this class, the students come with many questions and always turn in their homework. They are excited to learn and don’t just take your word for an answer you give them. The students challenge me in many ways and I enjoy the new experiences that come with them; they remind me of myself; doing anything to test the teacher or making sure they know the teacher can be trusted.  I had overcoming breakthrough this week. The students had a homework assignment where they had to write their own poem. During lunch, one of the students ran to me and said, “Ms. Jones look at my assignment and tell me what you think. Is it an A?” Me being Ecstatic, trying to hold back my excitement, looked it over and told her a few things she needed to change.  I then said, “Overall the assignment was well done”. The best part came after. She spread the word that I knew what I was doing. Now with every assignment I am hearing my name coming from all areas of the room. Word of mouth, apparently, is still a strong approach. 
 

I find, not classroom management to be a problem but finding activities that appeal to all students. I have some that love art and some that hate art. I have some students who want PowerPoint and some that do not. I understand teaching many ways and sparking different interest is the way to go; however what I struggle with is if I choose to do an art project for example, those who don’t like art complain about it and drag on the assignment at hand. I would like to make my interactions positive when telling them to speed up or to not complain. Unfortunately, I find myself wanting to use those phrases. In an article titled How to Keep a Student Engaged by Baptist Johnson he states, “Use games to teach a lesson, when appropriate to keep students active and engaged. Present the spelling words as a game of Wheel of Fortune. Teach facts about the Civil War as a game of Trivia Pursuit or Jeopardy.” I like the idea; however I find it hard to think of games that will keep the students interest. I would like teacher references here on what games work best because I have seen Jeopardy back fire a few times. One thing I have noticed that seems to be missing is whole class discussion. Questions will be directed at the teacher but never used as a discussion among students. Bomer in his writing “Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s English Classroom” has said, “It is clearly important for students to have the kind of on-fire discussions that might hook them into an intellectual life and to be captured by their teacher’s excitement in discussing something interesting" (18).  Maybe if my students are focused on what is to come they will move faster in the things not liked.

References:

Bomer, Randy.Building Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classrooms. Portsmouth:
      Heinemann, 20011. Print.

Johnson, Baptist.eHow.Demand Media, n.d.Web. 1 September 2008.