Since Jackie is kicking me out I have to go find a new home as well.
So I'll be teaching sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes. 40 minutes each period. 4 times a week. Somewhere between 20 and 30 different nationalities represented in the school from K-12.
So middle school. What do you do with middle school? How do you keep their attention? What kinds of instructional things do you avoid? What works well? How do you assess students and try to understand if they got it or not?
Just like with Jackie, this is a culture shock and also high school to middle school. Completely different world, yeah? I'm excited to develop my teaching personality with this new dynamic of students.
In other words, help! Haha, thanks everyone. I hope you are all doing well and can catch up on some much needed sleep!
Modeling, scaffolding, and variety have been the three big components my co-op has been preaching to me. Modeling is huge because it shows students how YOU read and think through something. Scaffolding is just a good way to release students on their own without them feeling like you abandoned them. Variety is just plain awesome. Haha! Seriously though, mix up the activities in each lesson. I try to switch tasks every 10 minutes so the students aren't sitting all day (though there are times when that's painfully necessary). You sort of saw me do this when you sat in on one of my classes.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of what works well, my co-op has been helping me with getting students engaged in discussion and removing the awkward silence. Here's what you do: pose a question to the class, have them turn and talk to a partner/group for 30 seconds, and then come back together as a class. I'm getting the hang of this now and have noticed how much easier it is to get students actively involved and engaged in conversation. They don't feel pressured to answer on the spot and can think things through before sharing with the class.
Finally, in regards to assessment, I have a giant learning goal board that has a rating from 1 to 4 -- 1 being "I need help from a teacher to understand" and 4 being "I understand and can do it on my own." After each lesson, I give a sticky note to students, ask them to initial it, and tell them to place it under their rating. Students are surprisingly honest and it gives me a good visual to judge whether or not I need to go back and review more or if I can move on. It's also good for DI grouping. :)
Sorry this post is a little delayed, but I hope some of this helps! Good luck!