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.