As I'm forming my ideas and lessons for the 10-day unit I'm going to be teaching beginning November 1st, I'm really starting realize how beneficial the activities we have done in Dr. Kist's and Dr. Pytash's classes are. I'm taking so many ideas from the things we have done in those classes.
I'm teaching my unit on poetry, with an emphasis on Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. I've got most of my ideas planned out, but a major concern of mine is what to do if I have allotted too much time for a certain lesson. I wanted to come up with an idea for what to do at the end of class with extra time. When Dr. Kist brought all those notebooks to class and said they were 15 cents at Walmart, I went out and bought a bunch of them. I'm really glad I did now because I decided that I'm going to paste a different Whitman or Dickinson poem in each of them. If there is extra time at the end of the period, I'll pass them out and have the students reply to the poem, or reply to the post of the person who wrote in that notebook prior to them, like we do with our random topic journals at the end of Teaching Literature and Composition most weeks. I won't assign a large grade to it, but it will at least keep the students busy until the end of the period and hopefully strengthen their analysis skills.
I also want to mention that Dr. Pytash really inspired me to begin reading more young adult fiction. First, that class encouraged me to read the Twilight Saga, which I had been given for Christmas, but had been reluctant to read. I loved it, of course. When we had our final assignment at the end of the semester, one of our options was to read a series and write papers on it. I chose to read the Uglies series, and of course, again fell in love with it. I had forgotten how relaxing and stress-relieving it could be to read something for fun rather than because you HAVE to. So this semester, when a professor assigned a Chris Crutcher novel, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, I was psyched to have an excuse to read a pleasure novel as homework. We didn't have to have it read until November some time, but I was so excited, I decided just to read it the second week of the semester. It's so refreshing after the challenging texts I feel like I am always reading for my college courses.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Katie,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you're well on your way to having a great 10-day lesson plan. We should talk about some of your strategies and vice-versa.
By the way, what professor assigned "Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes"? I love Crutcher. I would recommend reading "Whale Talk" as well. It's a fantastic brother book to "Staying Fat..."
-ksk
It is good to hear that you are taking ideas from Dr. Kist's class and incorporating them into your own style. I have really been thinking on some of the strategies I have learned over the years as well. I like the idea of going out and getting those cheap notebooks. I may do so also. It does sound like a good strategy to get students engaged when there is free time to spare.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me think of Atwell when you talk about how nice it is to just read for pleasure rather than duty. You and Atwell make me realize more and more that I want to give kids choice on their reading and writing, at least guided choice, if not entire freedom.
Well, keep up the good work. We are almost there!