Search results matching tags 'lessons' and 'good mood'

Classroom Goals for the Year

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 23:26:32 GMT

Teachers in my district are required to set three professional growth goals each year, and I have decided on the following:

To complete and pass my National Boards (results are out in November usually, so if I do not pass I will set out to do so)
To have at least three different activities per period with an emphasis on physical movement
To play more learning games in each class with a specific goal of at least one per week

These will take a bit of extra planning, but if I’m successful I believe the kids will enjoy their time in class and maybe even learn just a little bit.

Filed under: Good Mood, Lessons

Move From What to Why!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:32:26 GMT

We and our students are immersed in media today. Look at the numbers:

Arguably the most frightening statistic is that 95% of the media is owned by five companies (Time Warner, VIACOM, Vivendi Universal, Walt Disney, and News Corp). So, how do we teach our students to wade through this morass of information, this new world of constant persuasion?

We teach them to be discerning, critical readers. We teach them to be rhetors.

However, an important shift must happen in our classrooms, especially for those of us teaching high school English students. Our students are pounded over the heads with setting, character, and theme from the time they enter elementary school and on into high school. They get the basics, but we sometimes drive the kids to look only for those ideas, ideas that can be found almost literally on the page.

We need to move from what and where to why.

What I mean by this is that we often ask students what the meaning of a literary term is (the what) and then to find examples in the text (the where), at times actually having the students touch the page for the location of the term’s employment. This is a basic skill, a rudimentary skill at the lower end of a taxonomic scale (usually Bloom’s or Marzano’s).

Let’s move kids beyond this and get to the why. Why did the author choose this setting? Why was alliteration used in that name? Why was this the best metaphor to use (or was it)? Why is the paragraph structured this way? Why is this sentence structured in such a way?

This leads the kids away from searching the text for answers and towards searching the text for meaning. This allows for nuance, not black and white assignments and activities. This moves the kids towards true analysis.

Ultimately, I want to see my students understanding the reasons authors make choices. Whether I use a novel, short story, editorial, advertisement, virtually any text, I want my students discussing the why when we analyze a text and this requires a close textual analysis. This means I have to move my students from defining and locating to analyzing.

It’s a daunting task at times but a necessary one if I want my students to become successful navigators and explorers in this Information Age. If I want my students to become citizens who contribute to our democracy, I need to help them critically read, question, and discover the nuances of argumentation and the means of persuasion.

Filed under: Good Mood, Lessons, Literature, Reading, Writing

Game 4: Common Bonds

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:13:15 GMT

Another game I enjoy using in the classroom is what I call Common Bonds, but it is really a form of the game TriBond. In this game three items are provided, and the player must determine what the three have in common.

For example, here are three items: a diner, a Superman comic, a Civil War assassination. What do they have in common? They all have a Booth; people sit in a boot at a diner, Superman changes in a phone booth in the comics, and John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln.

These little puzzles can be given as a sheet of puzzles, as a bonus question on a quiz, or as an entry activity when the kids walk in to the classroom. Regardless, it makes them think on another level.

I also use them as reviews for a test or as a test question. Here is one I made up for part of a mid-term: Tom Sawyer, Jay Gatsby, and Beau Baton. What do they have in common? All three were shot in their respective novels (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and A Gathering of Old Men).

These are easy to create and the kids enjoy solving them.

Filed under: Good Mood, Lessons

Game 3: Reverse Taboo

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:44:15 GMT

Using taboo cards from the actual game like the one pictured here, I divide my class into three teams and have them group together. Once in the groups I begin the game, but not by using the actual game rules.

I read the first word on the card, which in the normal game is a word that cannot be said when trying to get a player to guess the pink word, and I give the team about 10 seconds to guess the pink word. For example, with the card here I would say, “pouch,” and the students quickly confer and give me a guess. The first word I hear is the guess.

If the team gets it right, I award them five points. If they answer incorrectly, I read the second word (in this case it’s “hop”) to the next group. If the second group answers correctly, the team gets four points. If wrong, the third team gets a guess with the third word (in this case it’s “animal”) for three points. The points decrease with each additional clue from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1. I continue through the five words until a team gets the word correct or no one answers correctly.

Once that card is used I put it away and allow the next team to start, and I repeat the process. It’s a blast and really gets the kids thinking and connecting information.

I have created my own cards using literature too. However, this sometimes requires a few extra word clues. I either play the game like I did above, or I (more likely) have the students play among themselves in groups using the traditional Taboo rules where the students cannot say the words below the pink word.

For The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (what the students need to guess), I put the words Huck, Tom, Jim, Mississippi River, Pap, Miss Watson, Widow Douglas, King, Duke, and Mark Twain. The students then have to get their teammates to guess the novel title using other words and phrases. It takes a while to make the cards, but it’s fun. I’ve also had students create their own and used them with the other classes.

Obviously, this game can be adapted in a number of ways which is part of its appeal. I use it every year, and every years my students enjoy it.

Filed under: Good Mood, Lessons, Literature, Vocabulary

Game 2: The Pyramid of Points

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:57:13 GMT

If you’ve ever seen the $25,000 Pyramid hosted by *** Clark, then you get the gist of this game. (I provided pictures of the original game below my descriptions.)

Basically, I have one student face the screen and one student with his/her back to the screen. Next, I reveal the categories to the student facing the screen who must then describe what is on the screen to his/her partner without saying the category. That’s for the partner to guess.

For example, if Tommy is facing Cindy and the screen and sees “Superhero Secret Identities,” then he will start saying things like “Clark Kent” (Superman), “Bruce Wayne” (Batman), “Peter Parker” (Spiderman), etc. When Cindy figures out these are Superhero Secret Identities, then Tommy begins to describe the next category.

When all of the categories have been identified, the two players stand or raise their hands. I usually keep going as a class until most of the students have finished (no real time limit unless the kids get stuck); sometimes I allow the whole class to finish, but some of my students must be kept busy. I’m sure you have a few of these kids too.

Then we play again, but the partners switch. If I have an odd number of students, I play with a student. It’s fun for me as well.

With my high school English students my categories might be “Examples of Irony” or “Examples of Alliteration” or “Characters Who Died” or “Heroes” or something like that. However, I have sometimes played with just fun categories to get kids thinking in different ways.

Regardless, it’s a good review game and you may even find that your students like to provide categories for future use.

Below are some pictures of the original show, but I usually just type up a quick diagram or project one I’ve drawn and project onto the screen.

The first picture is of the contestants playing in front of the pyramid. The second picture is an example of the category the contestant must guess.

Filed under: Good Mood, Lessons

Game 1: Jeopardy

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:47:41 GMT

I know it’s common, but the Jepoardy-style game is a fantastic one for reviewing information (or seeing how much the class knows about new information). A number of reasons for my use of this game are detailed below.

(1) Of course, kids love technology and they love games. This makes the Jeopardygame a “two-fer.” I would recommend downloading a game board that you like using a Google search. Some are very much like the game show while others are a bit simpler; however, any PowerPoint or Keynote game board will suffice.

Plus, the interactive quality of these downloadable and adjustable game boards allows you flexibility while the kids see some action on the projected screen. Sometimes I even have a student act as the host.

(2) Any game which allows for student choice is a winner in my book. The kids can choose categories and even the difficulty of the question. When I wanted to review mythology with my seniors, I used the following categories with question values from 100 to 500 points each: Roman God Names, Greek God Names, Monsters, Heroes, Love Myths, and The Trojan War.

Since the kids choose the categories and the difficulty level of the question, they felt like they had some control and could answer freely without embarrassment.

(3) I save the games for later use. I have between 10 and 15 different games ready to go for a few of my classes. This flexibility allows me to re-use categories or entire games. Sometimes I have classes interested in seeing what kinds of things they will study in a particular course, and I bring up one of these games and show them some of the categories, questions, and game boards. It’s a good, quick preview.

(4) I don’t have the kids truly compete with one another. Since there are 9,000 points possible on the game board, I set a class-wide score goal of 4,500 points, 5,000 points, or 6,000 points. If they reach it I provide everyone with some sort of prize.

Since we are playing as a class and I want everyone to participate, I draw a name to start the game and that student gets the first pick. After he/she picks and answers (with no help from others), I have the next student pick and we go around the room this way until all of the questions have been selected and answered. The goal is to score as many points as possible as a class.

(5) I can modify the game as I see fit.

Sometimes with my classes, especially my lower level classes, I allow them to “phone a friend” in the room for half of the points. This way a student who does not know an answer can get assistance and not have to worry about losing all of the class’ points for that question. My students have loved this option!

Also, I can provide a helpful hint if I want. Sometimes a student just needs to be nudged in the right direction, and I can make this happen.

Unlike the actual show host on Jeopardy, I can declare that students don’t lose points for wrong answers in order to lessen the anxiety. Sometimes I state that 500 point questions will not count against the class’ total score. Sometimes I don’t. It all just depends on how the kids are doing and what needs to happen to move things along without friction.

(6) I have my students keep paper and pencil handy in case they wish to write anything down for future reference. Since I generally use these games as reviews, I want the kids to learn something or be reminded of things and writing down what was once unknown is a stress-free method of having notes to study. Plus, my wording is on the screen, so the kids don’t have to guess about language or descriptions.

Overall, though, these are my basic tips and uses of the Jeopardy-style game in my classroom.

Filed under: Good Mood, Lessons

Teaching Satire

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:58:20 GMT

Would your kids (or neighbors) recognize that this article is satire?

It could be a good teaching tool; maybe asking the kids where in the article they realized it was satire (if they did) would be interesting.

Filed under: Good Mood, Lessons, Pop Culture

Motivation

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:54:56 GMT

If you want to know what makes us tick, watch this video. Make your staff watch this video, and–most importantly–make your legislator watch this video before making any more education decisions.

Filed under: Good Mood, Lessons

A Tearful Memory

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 20:19:42 GMT

This speech gets to me every time I watch it. Whether trying to inspire students, having students watch a wonderful speaker, or showing the students the parts of an effective speech, I absolutely love this speech. I hope you do too.

Filed under: Good Mood, Lessons

6 For 1: What a Deal!

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:35:50 GMT

A while back I wanted my students to write more, but I knew I didn’t have the time to assess more. So, like Miniver Cheevy, I “thought, and thought, and thought/ and thought about it…scratched [my] head and kept on thinking…/coughed, and called it fate,/ And kept on drinking.” Ok, not really, but that’s a great poem for allusions and the differences between Romanticism and Realism.

Anyway, I came up with a simple idea: each day in class the students compose a 1-2 paragraph mini-essay after choosing a prompt from a list I created based on what we are reading at the time. We do this for six days, numbering each essay one through six, and then on the seventh day I roll a die to determine which essay I collect. The students have 20 minutes in class to write, and then they are responsible for finalizing each draft that night or on the weekend.

Students who are absent the day I collect the work receive the same treatment; when they walk in the room, I roll the die and the result may not be the same as the rest of the class. That’s just the way chance works is what I tell the students when explaining the process.

The writings (on which the six essays are based) that the students are in the midst of composing are the following:

“I’m A Fool” by Sherwood Anderson,
“Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway,
“Bernice Bobs Her Hair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Great Gatsby, Chapter 1, by F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Great Gatsby, Chapter 2, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and
The Great Gatsby, Chapter 3, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

P.S. As an introduction to the period, I once again assigned the research displays I blogged about last year.

Filed under: American Lit., Good Mood, Grading, Lessons, Literature, Writing