10/27/11
LAE 4530.001
Tara Payor & Nina Graham
My host teacher and I collaborated to see what I could do with the students for the first lesson. Her sophomores were getting ready to begin reading "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket" by Jack Finney so she said that would be a perfect opportunity to begin a lesson with them. She gave me the text book so that I could read the story myself and annotate in it.
After preparing for two weeks, I came up with the lesson plan (attached in LiveBinder) and arrived to Sickles, ready after reading the short story multiple times. I started by projecting their bellwork at the top of the board. They were to predict what would happen in the story after reading two quotes from it. I had the students share their answers and how they made their predictions based off the quotes. First period is the quietest class and the least participatory. I imagine it's because they are still feeling groggy and sleepy so early in the morning. Ms. Rich says they are always like that but has seen them in other class periods and they are just as energetic as other students. It's good to know that first periods will likely be a bit more reserved as I go into my internship. I don't want to create judgements on my classes.
Still, with probing there were some students who participated, usually the same few. I found their predictions were close to what we were about to read. I wanted to make sure something like this would happen so I used one quote that gave a good clue to the story and another that had to be read more closely to find a clue. I was impressed with some of the classes answers on the latter quote (the first one on the lesson plan) because a couple students took notice that the setting was in a building high up and that something has fallen. Others, especially those in fifth period, Ms. Rich's notoriously rowdy class, went a little off topic when discussing the predictions and reading the story.
When starting off reading the story, I went along further with the theme of predictions and asked the students what they thought the story might be about based on the title, "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket." Lots of answers included suicide or that there was going to be a man who dies with important information in his pocket. Many of their answers came close to the story, something I was glad for. I read the first paragraph to set the mood of the story and pronounce the protagonist's name so that students wouldn't be confused when reading aloud themselves. I remember being in high school and wanting to read aloud except sometimes I wouldn't if I read ahead and saw a word or two I couldn't pronounce.
Students read fairly well, some better than others. Whenever a student would stop at a word that he or she could not pronounce I would wait as they processed it to see if they could pronounce it on their own. If they couldn't I would supply the word, still this only had to happen about twice. I had annotated the text in pencil previously so that I would know where to stop and what to ask students. The story was one of suspense so I would ask students how the author was creating suspense and how suspense is created in movies. After hearing some of their answers I told them to pay attention to how a clue for the development of the plot is given and right after extensive details about what is happening or what something looks like are given, leaving the audience craving to know more.
I read aloud a couple more times during the three class periods, either when no one volunteered or I wanted to interject right after reading something, but never for longer than a paragraph. I found my voice hurting by the end of the day because I tried projecting my voice to the class. Even so Ms. Rich said I needed to work on projecting my voice! I was surprised! My voice hurt for the rest of the day because of how loud I spoke but still it wasn't enough. This reminded me of when I would sometimes walk into a class, usually an English class, and my teacher could barely speak because she had "lost" her voice from speaking so much in classes. This may be something I'll have to work on and hopefully I will be able to build up my voice like I would a muscle.
Otherwise the day went great and I although I would have preferred a lesson that's closer to my teaching style, more interactive and discussion-oriented, I felt that this was a great introductory lesson for me. Ms. Rich also said that she could tell the students respected me in the way they looked at me, something I was proud and relieved to hear.
After preparing for two weeks, I came up with the lesson plan (attached in LiveBinder) and arrived to Sickles, ready after reading the short story multiple times. I started by projecting their bellwork at the top of the board. They were to predict what would happen in the story after reading two quotes from it. I had the students share their answers and how they made their predictions based off the quotes. First period is the quietest class and the least participatory. I imagine it's because they are still feeling groggy and sleepy so early in the morning. Ms. Rich says they are always like that but has seen them in other class periods and they are just as energetic as other students. It's good to know that first periods will likely be a bit more reserved as I go into my internship. I don't want to create judgements on my classes.
Still, with probing there were some students who participated, usually the same few. I found their predictions were close to what we were about to read. I wanted to make sure something like this would happen so I used one quote that gave a good clue to the story and another that had to be read more closely to find a clue. I was impressed with some of the classes answers on the latter quote (the first one on the lesson plan) because a couple students took notice that the setting was in a building high up and that something has fallen. Others, especially those in fifth period, Ms. Rich's notoriously rowdy class, went a little off topic when discussing the predictions and reading the story.
When starting off reading the story, I went along further with the theme of predictions and asked the students what they thought the story might be about based on the title, "Contents of the Dead Man's Pocket." Lots of answers included suicide or that there was going to be a man who dies with important information in his pocket. Many of their answers came close to the story, something I was glad for. I read the first paragraph to set the mood of the story and pronounce the protagonist's name so that students wouldn't be confused when reading aloud themselves. I remember being in high school and wanting to read aloud except sometimes I wouldn't if I read ahead and saw a word or two I couldn't pronounce.
Students read fairly well, some better than others. Whenever a student would stop at a word that he or she could not pronounce I would wait as they processed it to see if they could pronounce it on their own. If they couldn't I would supply the word, still this only had to happen about twice. I had annotated the text in pencil previously so that I would know where to stop and what to ask students. The story was one of suspense so I would ask students how the author was creating suspense and how suspense is created in movies. After hearing some of their answers I told them to pay attention to how a clue for the development of the plot is given and right after extensive details about what is happening or what something looks like are given, leaving the audience craving to know more.
I read aloud a couple more times during the three class periods, either when no one volunteered or I wanted to interject right after reading something, but never for longer than a paragraph. I found my voice hurting by the end of the day because I tried projecting my voice to the class. Even so Ms. Rich said I needed to work on projecting my voice! I was surprised! My voice hurt for the rest of the day because of how loud I spoke but still it wasn't enough. This reminded me of when I would sometimes walk into a class, usually an English class, and my teacher could barely speak because she had "lost" her voice from speaking so much in classes. This may be something I'll have to work on and hopefully I will be able to build up my voice like I would a muscle.
Otherwise the day went great and I although I would have preferred a lesson that's closer to my teaching style, more interactive and discussion-oriented, I felt that this was a great introductory lesson for me. Ms. Rich also said that she could tell the students respected me in the way they looked at me, something I was proud and relieved to hear.
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