Students as Teachers, and Preventing Boredom

In today’s class, I learned that the teacher shouldn’t be the only giver of knowledge. While this concept seems a bit obvious, as a teacher, it’s easy to forget. For this reason, I have created a little rubric for myself. This rubric contains elements that I make sure all my lessons have. My most important point: students help me teach. My best lessons have been the ones where kids were a part of the ‘teaching’ of the material. I love having students come up and help me solve a problem; I find they’re much more interested when I ‘need their help’. Sometimes I have the class as a whole help me solve a problem, or sometimes I call on individual children to come up to the front. These are the best lessons! Kids often think in similar ways. Therefore, having kids help and teach each other is very valuable.

With this overall thought, comes another idea. Teachers have to know their students. We need to know what is too hard or too easy for them. If kids fall in either of these categories, you come across a dangerous zone: boredom. This concept can mean different things. It can mean that the student is completely lost and behind, or it can mean that it’s way too easy for the student. Now, some questions come to mind, “What are some things teachers can do to keep students engaged and learning when a classroom has so many different levels? What can a teacher do besides simply have more ‘paper’ work for kids that need further challenging?”

As I mentioned earlier, for classroom practice, it’s important to let students be teachers too. They can offer different perspectives to subject matters. Give them a problem to teach to the class, or have the entire class ‘help’ the teacher solve a problem. Teachers also need to know her students. Who is bored? Who is lost and confused? Now that I know this, what should I do to challenge my students? These are all questions which teachers will constantly ask themselves.

Literature in Mathematics

In today’s class, we spent quite a bit of time talking about the article Using Creative Writing and Literature in Mathematics Classes. It was a very interesting article. Through it, I learned that with creativity, you can incorporate any subject into another subject. All lessons can be interdisciplinary. There was one drawback which was mentioned in class, yet I can’t help but to see the other side—how it can also be a benefit. It was mentioned in class today that for children who have hard time writing, doing a math assignment like this becomes hard to do. Some kids may really love math, but may struggle with writing. It was said that a lesson like this would take away the excitement from students who enjoy math but struggle with writing. I on the other hand, can see how joining a subject that a student loves with one that he/she hates, may actually help the student. If a student loves math but hates writing, an assignment like this may motivate the student to write. It may even get the student to start liking writing.


Still, it seems like a lesson like this would be very time consuming. I am curious to be present in a classroom and see it be done. I also wonder about the younger grade levels. Is it possible to do this assignment with the younger kids? In my second grade class, my students have often been given numbers where they then have to come up with a word story. The article talks about something much more extensive. How can this type of lesson be extended to the younger grades while reaching the same goals the article is talking about?

For classroom practice, I think it can definitely be done in the older grade levels. I personally would love to teach in the younger grade levels. I would really benefit from knowing how this could be broken down for younger grades. I feel it would help motivate students who want to do math and not write, or vice versa. It also works as an assessment for teachers. It stretches children’s mathematical thinking even more. While the kids have to have a vivid imagination to create the story, the story itself has to be mathematically viable and correct.

Moving From Assessment to Instruction

I have learned that M loves action books. He loves to let his imagination run wild. He also likes books with boys in them. I feel he likes to read books that he can associate himself with. Two class sessions ago, I took him four books and asked him to choose one. He chose The Invisible Boy, “because it has a boy on it.” I’ve learned that M enjoys coming up with adventure stories. He loves putting quotes in his stories and bringing them to life.

My buddy seems to have a hard time reading a passage and telling me the main points of what he read. Now that I have a better idea of what kinds of books he likes to read, I would continue choosing books of that style and genre and have M read certain pages and retell me what he read. I would ask him to give me the main points of the passage. I would do this process (have him read a few pages and tell me what they’re about) a few times. Once we discuss them, I would have him write me a page listing the main points. On this piece of writing, I would also be looking for an improvement in run-on sentences. This was something I noticed he needed to work on. I would be looking at his sentences making sure they are structured correctly (no run-on sentences) and I would be looking for proper usage of exclamation points and question marks, as these were also areas where he needed some practice. While he seems to have no problem reading a passage silently and telling me what it was about, I want him to gain practice and be able to read a passage aloud and give me the main details. It's definitely something I feel he would benefit from.

In terms of reading levels, I would have him read stories that are in the fourth to fifth grade level.

I am still adding EALRs to this list, but here are some of them:
GLE 3.3.4: Knows and applies punctuation rules. Uses commas after an introductory phrase or clause.
GLE 3.3.6: Uses complete sentences in writing.

iPod Touch- Part 2

My current thoughts for using Touches for differentiating learning for students are that they are great tools for them. These particular students would highly benefit from an ‘x’ amount of time every day or a few times weekly with an iPod. Teachers can use it for various things too! For one of my assignments, I had to interview five different children. It was great not having to worry about writing everything down. I simply recorded them using the Voice Memo function. Throughout my days, I can record any notes for things I have to complete that night on the Notes application.

My main placement is a second grade class. Many of them are still learning how to sign into computers and search the web. While in computer lab, I see the students becoming more excited with the use of technology. With practice comes comfort, and with comfort comes the desire to explore the possibilities. I’m sure the kids would love to use the iPod for various activities, and I know that differentiated learners would benefit from this. I would simply wait for the kids to continue becoming comfortable with technology. If I had an older class, I would incorporate the iPod Touch immediately. However, for the young kids, I would probably wait until the half year point, unless I can designate some time to teach the specific student one-on-one how to use it.

While I don’t have a lot of experience using Touches in the classroom, the little bit that I do have reinforces my beliefs of the benefits it can bring to any school. My concern is that not all schools can afford this. What comes next? What are other more financially obtainable forms of technology that can be afforded by a school? Are there any? I ask because the iPod Touch isn’t exactly that expensive, and yet most schools don’t have them.

Literacy Project 1- Reflection

Cassandra, Amy, Sarah, and Tina, thank you very much for your thoughtful responses!

Cassandra and Amy, you both raised a very important point. The lesson plan that I posted was very close to the ‘I do it, we do it, you do it’ format. I’m not sure why I didn’t include a ‘modeling’ portion in the lesson plan. I would definitely make that change. This would help M in his understanding of run-on sentences and the reasons for avoiding them. Originally, I had thought of a worksheet with seven sentences. I would now change that to eight sentences. These eight sentences would be split into three sections: Modeling Practice, Guided Practice, and Independent Practice. In the modeling section, I would correct the two run-on sentences, making sure to say out loud what I am correcting and the reasons for doing so. Essentially, I would be following the Optimal Learning Model discussed in our readings (Routman, 2003). In the guided practice section, we would work on two sentences together, and the remaining four sentences would be completed independently by M.

Tina, your advice to teach M how to use an editing chart is very interesting. After spending these past couple of weeks with M, I can tell he tries hard to complete great writing pieces. I have no doubt he would take the information on the editing chart and almost use it as a rubric to make sure he uses proper conventions. Because I want him to pay close attention to correcting his run-on sentences, I would create a separate lesson for this; perhaps one that immediately follows the lesson on run-on sentences. It’s important for M and other students to see what teachers are looking for. Having a lesson on editing specifically would help students learn to pay more attention to their writing.

Sarah, the question you posted for me was whether or not we should work on word choice next. I think it would be a good place to continue-- after working on editing. I want to make sure he is completely sure of when to use explanation points rather than question marks, and vice versa. Word choice would definitely follow. I remember the last sentence of his story lacked energy. I feel he could have chosen better word choices on his conclusion. In fact, it’s important that we work on this too (concluding sentences). We want to teach him to choose strong word choices ALL throughout the story. He did this so well in the previous pages, I almost felt like I was left ‘hanging’ with the concluding sentence that he wrote. In fact, his last sentence threw me off some. I thought, in the story, the boy was enjoying the day all animals could talk. So, why was his last sentence, “Even though it was annoying, I still remember the day all animals could talk”?  I understand the dog’s accident may have been frightening or frustrating, but I’m not sure if ‘annoying’ was the right choice of words. On the contrary, before Kunoa’s accident, the boy seemed happy, and after the accident, he seemed concerned. I’m not sure if he simply used the word ‘annoying’ to finish the story quickly.  After all, it was his last sentence (as I mentioned earlier, he seemed to rush off the end and he lacked energy). I remember writing in my analysis how he could have used better word choices (NWREL, 1992, p. 5). Therefore, I think it would be a great area to target next.

Working with a student who is enthusiastic about writing, and who clearly takes the time to create his stories, is very rewarding. From our meetings with M, I can tell he listens to feedback and works hard at improving his work. I look forward to continuing my work with him and helping him improve something he loves to do.